She is praised as a bright light in the darkness of the pandemic, and now Monmouth Medical Center nurse Yve Massre has been honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.
Her unit is the hospital’s first Covid unit. She was there during the worst of it, and says it took her to the breaking point at times.
“I had my meltdown at home, I did my crying, got it out, went to sleep and woke up the next day,” she said, “and you know, it’s just ‘This is what I’m supposed to be doing.’”
Massre did anything she could think of for her lonely, scared Covid patients, bringing them food, games, cards and presents. And when one patient asked to see her face through all the PPE she was wearing, she brought him a photo of herself.
“It’s scary, we have these masks and these shields and all of this you know, these gowns, and we look like Martians,” she said, “and it just sort of made him realize this is a human behind it.”
Daisy is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. The award is given by a foundation started by the family of someone who died of such a disease.
Massre, like so many others, has also had to be there for dying patients when families could not be.
“It took some time afterwards when we had left the room to sort of regain composure and continue the day, because we definitely had to continue the day,” she said.
Massre has been promoted to unit nurse leader, and said she may pursue nurse management as a career path.