Megan Arguello, RN, has a routine when she returns home from 12-hour shifts of swabbing potential COVID-19 patients and training others to swab and properly don and doff PPE.
“When I get home, I strip in the garage and I go straight to a private shower that is next to the garage,” Arguello says. “The kids don’t use that bathroom; that is my shower. … All my laundry goes straight into the wash. I don’t see my kids – even my dog – until I’m clean.”
Arguello uses “air hugs” to greet her teenage children, but says her toddler has a harder time understanding.
“You can’t keep a toddler out of your face for long,” she says. Arguello also checks her kids’ temperatures every day, monitors their coughs, and makes sure they wash their hands and don’t touch their faces.
Arguello has reason to be more cautious now, as her husband – a U.S. Marine – leaves April 30 for a 12-week obligation. Her teenagers have asked her to stop working with COVID-19 patients at that time, and she agrees that is the right call for her family.
“They’re nervous, and I get it,” she says. “I’m nervous, too, with my husband leaving. Because what happens if I get sick? I’m not going to intentionally put myself in that position.”
For Arguello, this is a difficult decision, though, as she has stepped up countless times to work on Duke Health's COVID-19 response. Just last Monday, she volunteered to be part of the Duke Health team that tested 90-some patients at a Pruitt Health nursing home in Orange County – the nursing home where at least 60 people tested positive for COVID-19.
“I have a great time with that age range, I love them,” she says. “… I volunteered because I’ve worked with this patient population before, I am familiar with it, and the types of facilities.”
For now, though, Arguello will continue working 12-hour shifts at a new large tent set up in Duke’s GC parking lot off Erwin Road. The tent – which opened last week to accommodate more testing and expand the testing capabilities at Duke Family Medicine Center – has four drive-through lanes, plus a walk-up lane. Arguello and her colleagues from Duke Family Medicine Center continue to swab potential COVID-19 patients there sent by Duke Employee Occupational Health & Wellness, Duke Family Medicine Center, Duke Primary Care clinics, and now pre-surgery patients sent by Duke University Hospital for screening.
Note: Duke Health’s drive-through COVID-19 testing sites are by appointment only and require a provider’s referral.
Special thanks to Caitlin Piccone, MPH, who transcribed the interview.