A New Normal

Kayla Black
Staff Writer 
  The Bonneville Buzz interviewed Jenny Waahila, an employee at Madison Memorial Hospital, where she has been working for two years. Waahila wears many hats, from a certified nursing assistant to a provider educator. This is a process by which medical organizations verify professional credentials to ensure proper care for the patients. Having nearly ten years of experience in the healthcare field, Waahila had a plethora of opinions regarding healthcare changes due to the pandemic.
  In this interview, Waahila was asked her thoughts on procedures, recent changes, and staffing. If Waahila was given the opportunity, she would choose to help with the staffing. There is a major strain on nurses, doctors, etc, there is a need for more staffing in every section of the hospital. They could benefit from increased environmental staffing, which are staff that are responsible for the safety and cleanliness of a hospital or other healthcare facilities. In her opinion, everything would go smoothly with those extra staff.
 Waahila prefers for doctors to perform only life-threatening surgeries because people are more in need of surgeries that have a big impact on their life, not just minor ones. She finds it helpful to keep doing certain surgeries because they are still providing income. One thing she would change last year during the COVID pandemic, was to plan ahead and not just make changes without taking action too quickly.  After being asked about hospital staff members, Waahila noted “Not necessarily with physicians but a lot with nurses.” The hospitals are having trouble with staff, not necessarily with physicians but with the nurses. According to Waahila, medicare and medicaid have not been affected by the pandemic. They do digital information and communication technologies as often as possible.

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