Parker’s “Nightingales” Hailed During National Nurses Week
MONROE TOWNSHIP – May 12, 2021– For Aida Calderon, working as a nurse at Parker at Monroe has been her dream career.
Yet, it has not always been easy. She will not soon forget the struggles over the past year, as the entire nursing team spent their days ensuring the elders were always safe and well cared for, despite the pandemic.
“We are with them all the time, speaking with them, holding their hands and helping them understand all the ways we were taking care of them,” Calderon said. “We are there for them, night after night, week after week. The elders know the nurses are there to safeguard their health and that we would do anything for them.”
For Calderon, it is all part of the job. Before March 2020, she could never fathom providing extended care during a pandemic, with PPE and other strict protocols, but says these were many of the brightest, challenging and satisfying moments of her career, to date.
National Nurses Week, which runs through Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12, has been the perfect time to celebrate Calderon and all the other “Parker Nightingales” who have made such an enormous difference on so many lives over the past year.
“There’s no doubt: our nurses are the heart and soul of Parker’s caring community,” Parker President and CEO Roberto Muñiz said. “National Nurses Week is the ideal time to salute their compassionate and ever-present dedication, especially during this lingering pandemic in which they have been called upon to do so much.”
Although the Parker Nightingales are grateful for the community-wide recognition, many will tell you that being a nurse is a calling they’ve continually heard, even from the earliest of ages.
The passion is evident in Alona Tarawalie, a nurse at Parker at Stonegate in Highland Park. She works diligently to serve the needs of residents, even if it means making special runs to the kitchen to retrieve a handful of crackers and a can of ginger ale for a hungry – yet sleepless – resident.
“We’re doing everything we can to show our elders that they are cared for and they are loved,” Tarawalie explained. “They speak to their friends and family; they know how the pandemic has affected so many residential care communities. We want them to always know that Parker is different. Our medical professionals are working nonstop to create the safest environment with the absolute best care. That is our promise and our bond.”
It is the mantra of each and every nurse at Parker’s campuses at Highland Park, Piscataway, Somerset, Monroe and New Brunswick, where person-centered care is the norm, not the exception.
Being a Parker nurse hinges on the ability to always be reliable and kind, but to take whatever compassionate measures necessary to keep elders healthy, explained Thomas Aponte, a nurse in the post-acute rehabilitation area at Parker at Somerset. On his watch, the elders always know – to the minute – when it is time for medication or for their rehabilitation appointments.
“One of the reasons that our nursing staff is superior is because of our devotion to the residents,” Aponte said. “This is a demanding profession that we have chosen. But we have made that decision because we love working with the older population. We know, every day, that we are making a significant and tangible difference in their lives. There is no other job – anywhere – that can offer the same satisfaction.
“That is why we are so proud to be Parker Nightingales.”