Last Wednesday, Megan Arguello, RN, found herself in the same situation as the hundreds of patients she’d seen since March 12: she was swabbed to determine if she had COVID-19. It just happened that she was swabbed in the very drive-through testing site that she’d helped set up and work in for the past week at Duke Family Medicine Center.
Arguello requested that her nurse colleague Nicole Yeates, RN―who worked alongside her to build up the drive-through and also to train others providers how to work the site―be the one to swab her.
“The team knew I was coming through,” she said. “We are taking care of our own.”
While Arguello awaited her test results at home for two days, she was anxious to be back at work and felt like she let the team down. But on Thursday night, Arguello learned she tested negative for COVID-19 and was able to return to work on Friday.
Beginning this week, she and Yeates will alternate 12-hour shifts in the drive-through, as the clinic’s hours will shift to accommodate more patients who need to be tested.
On March 12, Arguello swabbed the first three potential COVID-19 patients who were sent to the clinic for testing; she and Yeates had just been fit-tested for personal protective equipment (PPE) the day before. On March 13, 32 patients came in for testing and she swabbed the majority of them.
“I didn’t even want to do normal clinic after that,” Arugello recalled, saying she felt naked without PPE. “Just leave me in the COVID clinic because at least I know what I am dealing with and I’m wearing PPE.”
Arguello said she doesn’t mind stepping up to be part of the team seeing COVID-19 patients at Duke Family Medicine Center.
“I’m married to a service member; ... this is my call up,” she said. “This is what we signed up to do when we became nurses. We just haven’t experienced a pandemic like this … in our lifetime.”
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.