Ahoskie, NC:

Two of RCCHC’s own will star in a dramatic reading of The Nurse Antigone, alongside several well-known actors and staff from other Community Health Centers. Wednesday, December 14, 5-7p.m. Registration is at https://nurseantigonenachc.eventbrite.com

Co-presented by Theater of War Productions, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Resilient Nurses Initiative – Maryland and co-hosted by the National Association of Community Health Centers, The Nurse Antigone presents dramatic readings of Sophocles’ Antigone on Zoom—featuring professional actors and a chorus of frontline nurses—to help frame powerful, guided discussions about the unique challenges faced by nurses. Antigone, an ancient play about a young woman who puts everything on the line to do what she believes is right, dramatizes the heavy cost of silencing and marginalizing caregivers, especially during times of crisis.

Stephanie Wroten, Chief Operating Officer at RCCHC said “I recommended Kayshawn Carter to highlight diversity in nursing. I think having a Black male performer honors the importance of sharing the COVID19 diverse nursing perspectives.” She noted that public health voices are frequently left unheard, and says “Having a forum to share the COVID-19 experiences of rural health nurses is important.”

Carter says: “After learning about the play, Antigone, and coming to understand how it reflects the moral and ethical distress that some health care workers may have experienced during COVID when confronting personal and patient care decisions, I feel it is an important and relevant story to participate in. I think that the frontline workers who were ‘in the trenches’ battling COVID, caring for very sick patients and still finding a way to balance their own physical, social and emotional health, will see a bit of themselves in some of the characters and the challenges they face in this play.”

Working in Eastern North Carolina, RCCHC nurses Britt and Carter experienced challenges on top of challenges during the pandemic, from knowing that patients had limited financial and information resources (including poor internet access), to facing difficult weather and climate events while simultaneously providing excellent primary care and COVID19 testing and prevention. Britt says: “Covid19 in and of itself had a major impact on the world and the world of healthcare. My heart and hat goes out to every healthcare staff around the world for their hard work and dedication during such challenging and uncertain times. However, we were there as well and for that my hat goes off to us! The care that our providers and nurses rendered to our patients and how we monitored them through our Covid19 case management [program] was STELLAR."