frontline workers

Meet Alexandra Flamm, a self-described adrenaline junkie who grew up knowing she wanted to work in the medical field to help save lives.

After receiving her degree in nursing, Flamm landed a job working in a Trauma Intensive Care Unit in the Bronx. Her hospital was located in one of the hardest hit areas when COVID-19 struck in March of 2020. Watching patients suffer from a mysterious virus no one had seen before shook Flamm; it upset her to know there were limits to what she could do to help.

Alexandra | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVewww.youtube.com

"I have never treated an illness I knew so little about. None of us had. So I couldn't tell patients that we would get them through this. I could only assure them that they would never be alone and we would be there through it all."

However, she didn't let fear stop her—instead, Nurse Flamm found creative ways to offer hope to patients' families during a very dark time. Because she was caring for COVID patients who were sedated and on a ventilator, she encouraged family members standing on the other side of the glass to call her cell phone, which she put inside of a plastic bag and placed next to the patient's ear.

"I always encourage family to talk to their loved ones. I would stand next to them looking at her through the glass door and try to be as honest as possible when they would ask me questions," she said. And if the patient took a turn for the worse, Flamm was there to hold their hand.

"Holding a patient's hand as they are dying because their loved ones couldn't be there was heart-wrenching and comforting at the same time...it felt like a privilege," she said.

Working in a hospital located in a COVID hotspot meant that Flamm and her co-workers were drowning in a sea of patients who needed ventilators and ICU care. It was virtually impossible to keep up. When travel nurses and other healthcare workers began showing up from elsewhere to help, it made a tremendous impact.

Courtesy of CeraVe

"I truly felt rescued by them, mentally and physically. They had such courage to jump right into a brand new place with no orientation and at the scariest time to be a healthcare worker...I wanted to be able to do that for someone else," Flamm said. "I wanted to go to a hotspot where the healthcare workers felt like they were drowning just like I had, and be able to help them feel rescued. And I wanted to use the knowledge and experience I had gained fighting COVID to help patients elsewhere."

So that's exactly what Flamm did. Once things started to calm down in New York, she quit her job at the hospital to become a travel nurse, flying to COVID hotspots all across the country. "I just wanted to go anywhere where [the spread of] COVID was [increasing]," she said. "It felt like a calling."

As a dermatologist-developed brand rooted in the medical community, CeraVe® is committed to supporting and celebrating healthcare professionals like Nurse Flamm. To give back to the workforce that is always giving so selflessly to others, CeraVe® put out a call to nurses to share their stories for a chance to be featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series shining a light on nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to patients and their communities.

As part of its commitment to nurses, CeraVe® is also a proud sponsor of the ANA Enterprise and their Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ initiative, a movement designed to transform the health of the nation by improving the health of the nation's 4.2 million registered nurses. Through the initiative, ANA is connecting and engaging with nurses to inspire them to take action in five key areas: activity, sleep, nutrition, quality of life and safety.

Additionally, over the past year, CeraVe® has donated more than 500,000 products to hospitals to help provide therapeutic skincare relief to healthcare workers and is continuing the product donation efforts. Nurses looking to engage with the brand and learn more about these initiatives can join the Shift Change: Nurse Essentials Facebook group, an online community hosted by CeraVe® where nurses come together for personal and professional empowerment.

To see more stories about nurse heroes, visit https://www.heroesbehindthemasks.com/.

"I love being a nurse because I have the honor of connecting with my patients during some of their best and some of their worst days and making a difference in their lives is among the most rewarding things that I can do in my own life" - Tenesia Richards, RN

From ushering new life into the world to holding the hand of a patient as they take their last breath, nurses are everyday heroes that deserve our respect and appreciation.

To give back to this community that is always giving so selflessly to others, CeraVe® put out a call to nurses to share their stories for a chance to be featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series shining a light on nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to patients and their communities.

First up: Tenesia Richards, a labor and delivery nurse working in New York City who, in addition to her regular job, started a community outreach program in a homeless shelter that houses expectant mothers for up to one year postpartum.

Tenesia | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVewww.youtube.com

Upon learning at a conference that black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health, Richards decided to take further action to help her community. She, along with a handful of fellow nurses, volunteered to provide antepartum, childbirth and postpartum education to the women living at the shelter. Additionally, they looked for other ways to boost the spirits of the residents, like throwing baby showers and bringing in guest speakers. When COVID-19 hit and in-person gatherings were no longer possible, Richards and her team found creative workarounds and created holiday care packages for the mothers instead.

"The packages were personalized to each mother with their names, a hand-written love note from the nursing team and items based on their pregnancy stage (which trimester, pregnant/postpartum) including newborn items (bottles, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, toiletries), toiletries and maternity clothes from the mother, as well as self-care items (journal, uplifting reading books, aromatherapy). My favorite part of the care package was hand-made quilts created by an 80+ [year old] retired doctor."

Courtesy of CeraVe

Continuing with her service, Richards is currently working on starting a non-profit organization, Our Mommas Heal, an expansion of the work that she's already doing in the community. "Our goal is to be the advocates for these at-risk mothers by connecting them to the necessary resources to ensure they have a high-quality, safe, equitable, uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery: education, other organizations like nurse family partnership, vetted health care providers," said Richards.

As a dermatologist-developed brand rooted in the medical community, CeraVe® is committed to supporting and celebrating healthcare professionals like Nurse Richards. Richards' story is the first of four we'll be sharing in the coming weeks.

As part of its commitment to nurses, CeraVe® is also a proud sponsor of the ANA Enterprise and their Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ initiative, a movement designed to transform the health of the nation by improving the health of the nation's 4.2 million registered nurses. Through the initiative, ANA is connecting and engaging with nurses to inspire them to take action in five key areas: activity, sleep, nutrition, quality of life, and safety.

Additionally, over the past year, CeraVe® has donated more than 500,000 products to hospitals to help provide therapeutic skincare relief to healthcare workers and is continuing the product donation efforts. Nurses looking to engage with the brand and learn more about these initiatives can join the Shift Change: Nurse Essentials Facebook group, an online community hosted by CeraVe® where nurses come together for personal and professional empowerment.

To see more stories about nurse heroes, visit www.heroesbehindthemasks.com/.