Local nursing student missing her graduation to help fight the pandemic in another state
MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – A local healthcare hero is going above and beyond to help out in another state.
Taylor Vandeloo, like a lot of soon to be grads, is in disbelief that she’s almost done.
“It’s wild. So wild. I’m excited though,” Vandeloo said.
She works at Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan and is also a a full time nursing student at Hutchinson Community College.
“I never thought that I would be in the middle of nursing school, going through a pandemic,” Vandeloo said.
Most college students envision their graduation day from the start, but Taylor won’t be there for hers, because she’s in Indiana.
She’s at an Ascension Via Christi partner facility that needed help because of a pandemic. Now she’s temporarily working at a long-term care facility in Indiana.
“I went into nursing to help and to care for people so this was the perfect opportunity,” Vandeloo said. “I felt called to come up here.”
She said she’s had a great time and learned a lot.
She’s also made an impact there. The facility she’s working at was dealing with a major shortage of medical gowns, so she took it into her own hands to find more.
She told one of her college advisors and they helped find a place in Indiana that’s donating gowns. Now her temporary workplace is getting hundreds of them all thanks to her.
“I got chills when she told me. I got chills, just because I helped do that. I impacted that. I made a difference,” Vandeloo said. “That was the whole point of this, like I wanted to come up here and make a difference and help.”
She still has some time left working there in Indiana before she comes home next Saturday.