It’s Nurse’s Week and longtime Bradford resident Tiffany Beeston, R.N. shares her experience working In various roles as a nurse with York Region Public Health
Bradford R.N. Tiffany Beeston loves her job working as a nurse in public health with York Region. This is her 20th year in the field, and what a year it has been.
Beeston has worked in various areas of nursing at York Region Public Health, and most recently was managing the Children and Family sector, before being redeployed to manage the newly formed COVID-19 contact tracing team.
After high school, she went straight into nursing school. "It was a natural decision,” she said about her career path of choice.
Right after graduating nursing school, she started working in internal medicine at Southlake Regional Health Centre, and a few years later moved on to York Region Public Health.
“York Region Public Health is fantastic. There’s so many different opportunities and different types of work you can do,” she shared.
She started working in the Infectious Diseases control division in 2004, and after having three children she transferred to the Child and Family Health division, where she worked for 10 years.
Beeston is an international board certified lactation consultant, and worked with the breastfeeding program in York Region, which she described as "an amazing experience."
Eventually, she wanted to take on more of a leadership role, so she started her masters of nursing degree, which she completed in 2017.
“So that was busy having three kids, and working full time and doing a masters program,” she explained.
Since then, she has been taking on various leadership roles within the region, both as a frontline R.N, and in acting management positions.
She took on a lot of team lead roles, a few of which looked at communities and vulnerable populations and how to enhance their health and reduce disparities that some of the vulnerable groups face.
“That was really important work,” she reflected.
From there, she went back to the Child and Family Mental Health division where she worked in mental health promotion. And after working as a R.N. in mental health promotion, she had the opportunity to work as acting manager in Healthy Babies, Healthy Children program, a home visiting program for new mothers after they are discharged from the hospital.
She was happy and excited to be working in her new role when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Little did I know that I would soon be managing the COVID-19 exposure and contact follow up team, which is York Region Public Health Contact Tracing team,” she said.
In her new role, she has a team of 19 staff who have also been redeployed from their positions to be part of her team.
“York Region is working extremely hard to stop the outbreak and using all the tools we have to slow the spread of infection,” she said.
She noted that contact tracing is one of the most effective tools public health has in order to reduce the spread of the virus.
“We know it’s been used in other areas of the world so successfully like Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan," she explained, noting that contact tracing is really about identifying close contacts of positive cases and putting a "ring around the person who is infected."
“By identifying those people and letting them know, we can essentially inform them of the need to self isolate and stop them from passing on the virus to others around them," she explained.
A close contact is anyone that has been in contact with an infected case, whether it be a family member, coworker or caregiver.
“Really anyone you have had face to face conversations with just less than that two metres or six feet for greater than 10 minutes or more,” she explained.
Once those close contacts are identified, public health would contact the individuals and inform them they were in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
“Under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, we are required to contact them and really help protect them and the community and those around them,” she explained.
Public Health would inquire if the person is experiencing any symptoms and if so to seek testing at one of the assessment centres in the region.
“Certainly we want them to be isolating from the last point in which they were exposed and if then if they are not experiencing symptoms we would advise them to still self isolate,” she said.
“We provide really clear instructions on what it means to self-isolate and if they are a high-risk close contact, they will get a daily call for those 14 days past their exposure,” she said.
The point is to check in and make sure they are feeling well and answer any of their questions and concerns.
“The community has done a nice job showing appreciation to all healthcare workers and all essential service workers in general,” she said, and she is appreciative of all the signage and shoutouts on social media throughout the course of the pandemic.
With her background in mental health, she said it’s important to have all of her team practicing self-care, especially during this time.
“It’s of particular importance to me that they take care of themselves,” she said. “Doing this work everyday can be a bit daunting.”
She noted that some of the people the team connects with may already know they are a close contact, but there are many who don’t, and it is their first time hearing about it.
Depending on the type of exposure and if the infected case is severely ill, some of the information shared with close contacts can generate a lot of fear, “fear that they might become infected, or pass it on to their loved ones," she said.
“It’s a balance that we have to walk in making these calls and making sure we are being sensitive to the specific needs of each person we call," she said.
"I think for the most part people have been thankful for the calls they are receiving,” she explained, noting most people want to help out and do whatever they can to reduce the spread.
She said the challenge at the beginning of the pandemic compared to now, was the lag time in testing.
"There was a bit of a lag time between when a person was tested and when they would see their laboratory results," she said. And in the early stages, before restrictions were imposed, this meant people were out and about in the community.
"Because of that, having to recall every place you've been and everyone you interacted with would have been more challenging, now that we are seeing that lag time has shrunk so much, we aren't seeing that as a bigger problem anymore," she said.
As soon as her team becomes aware of a case, they are contacting all the infected close contacts within 24 hours.
As more people start heading back to work and resume a semi-normal lifestyle, Beeston said it would be helpful for everyone to keep a log of their activity and people they have interacted with, just in case.
"If they did need to be called upon to remember those details, that's something they could really do to support our work," she said. "We could get the information, call everybody right away."
The past few months have been unprecedented for everyone, and Beeston and her team have had their fair share of challenges.
"We're all learning everyday, it was challenging in the beginning, especially working with a large team of staff who are doing new work as well," she said.
But she keeps positive and is enjoying the opportunity to lead a new team, and doing her part to keep the community safe.
"Everyone is really working together, and we are a team."
When she's not busy working, she enjoys spending as much time as possible outside, and spending time with family and friends. Both her daughters, Ella and Emily are in the competitive dance program at Bradford School of Dance, and her son, Evan curls and plays baseball.
"I usually spend most of my time watching them at their activities," she said. "Unfortunately with everything being cancelled, my time looks a little different than it usually does."
