Christine is the kind of nurse who seems to always know what is necessary, and then volunteers to do it.
In 2020, she was one of the first to sign up to work at Covid-19 test centers. Christine then helped establish additional testing sites and encouraged her colleagues to join. This experience equipped Christine for a critical role at an emergency federal shelter located in the Long Beach Convention Center, where UCLA Health delivered medical care to unaccompanied migrant children from Central America. There she played a key role in establishing a special intake site, serving as the lead nurse for three months and helping facilitate care for over 1,600 children. Every single day she collaborated with the interdisciplinary healthcare teams as well as government agencies to improve workflow streams and processes to provide care to the children. Early on, she noticed a problem: When a child tested positive for Covid-19, they were quarantined in a different tent, separating them from siblings who tested negative. This was very distressing for these children, so Christine advocated to allow siblings who had been together to remain together, even if one had Covid-19. This was difficult to get agreement on, but Christine insisted that the emotional well-being of the children had to be prioritized, and she was successful.
In her role as a transport nurse, Christine works to make a difference in the lives of each of her patients, and their families—but she also has a genius for systems- and policy-level improvements, because she wants to impact not just one patient at a time, but every patient that follows. Her creative thinking and knack for making genuine connections make her an uncommonly effective nurse.