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Temwa Mzumara knows firsthand what it feels like to watch helplessly as a loved one fights to stay alive. In fact, experiencing that level of fear and vulnerability is what inspired her to become a nurse anesthetist. She wanted to be involved in the process of not only keeping critically ill people alive, but offering them peace in the midst of the unknown.
"I want to, in the minutes before taking the patient into surgery, develop a trusting and therapeutic relationship and help instill hope," said Mzumara. Especially now, with Covid restrictions, loved ones are unable to be at the side of a patient heading to surgery which makes the ability to understand and quiet her patients' fears such an important part of what she does.
Temwa | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVe www.youtube.com
Dedicated to making a difference in the lives of her patients, Nurse Mzumara is one of the four nurses featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series by CeraVe® that honors nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to their patients and communities.
When she isn't working in an official capacity at the hospital, Nurse Mzumara devotes her time to a local ministry known as SALT (Service And Love Together). While there are multiple arms of the organization, Mzumara works most closely with their Hospital Ministry. Pre-Covid, groups of hospital volunteers visited patients to lift their spirits with singing and encouragement. However, since that's on hold for now, they've found other ways to help meet the needs of the central Florida community—like focusing on the growing homeless population. SALT's Homeless Ministry has created trailers that provide the community with food, clothing, and access to showers, and laundry, all of which help those experiencing homelessness get back on their feet.
"My faith is what drives me to be the best person I can be and drives my passion in life to help people in need," said Mzumara. She says she truly loves people and tries to see the best in everyone she meets because you never know what someone else might be going through.
"When I am with my patients, I strive to bring them hope and healing...gaining that trust from them and being appreciated for what I do is invaluable. Nursing is more than just a job. It's a calling," said Mzumara.
Nurses like Mzumara are what inspired CeraVe® to launch the Heroes Behind the Masks campaign.
"While CeraVe® has long appreciated and supported the invaluable work of the medical community, their service and commitment to their communities has never been more profound or worthy of recognition," said Jaclyn Marrone, Vice President of Marketing for CeraVe®. "We're thankful to all nurses everywhere for their unparalleled selflessness and compassion."
Developed with dermatologists, CeraVe® is a brand rooted in the medical community and committed to supporting healthcare professionals. 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/.
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A Florida high school photoshopped all traces of cleavage out of girls' yearbook photos
05.21.21
In today's "What century is this again?" news, a high school in St. Johns County, Florida is under the spotlight for its bizarro Photoshop attempt to eliminate all evidence of girls' breast tissue in its yearbook photos.
Dozens of female students at Bartram Trail High School have had their yearbook photos edited to have their cleavage removed, causing an outcry from students and parents. Reporter Ben Ryan of Action News Jax out of Jacksonville investigated the story and shared examples of some before and after photos on Twitter, explaining that the before photos were deemed "inappropriate" by the school.
This is a before and after yearbook photo taken of Bartram Trail 9th grade high school student, Riley O’Keefe. Sh… https://t.co/IR2aoqqR7b— Ben Ryan (@Ben Ryan)1621547060.0
Students and parents said that at least 60 photos were edited like this—some of them badly—to erase all traces of cleavage from girls' chests. The school confirmed that the number was actually 80, all of them girls. (This is not the first time something like this has happened. A Utah school came under fire for the same thing a few years back.)
We're not talking deep, plunging necklines here. The photos Ryan shared on Twitter show scoop neck shirts and v-neck sweaters that just happen to show a crease where breasts come together at the top as breasts tend to do.
One student, 9th grader Zoe Iannone told Action News Jax that she felt confident that she had looked good and was within the school's dress code when she went to school that day, but that changed when she saw her edited photo. "When I sent it to my mom and all of us saw it, I felt very sexualized, like that was what they were worrying about," she said.
Ninth grader Riley O'Keefe, featured in the above photos, told Action News she had worn the same outfit to school and had been told it was fine. Seeing the edited photo in the yearbook made her feel uncomfortable, and she decided to speak up about it for girls who might not feel comfortable saying something.
"You're not only affecting their photo, it's not just for protecting them, you're making them uncomfortable and feel like their bodies aren't acceptable in a yearbook," she said.
“You’re not only affecting their photo, it’s not just for protecting them, you’re making them uncomfortable and fee… https://t.co/IbgaC40KcT— Ben Ryan (@Ben Ryan)1621549735.0
The school sent Ryan this statement:
"Bartram Trail High School's previous procedure was to not include student pictures in the yearbook that they deemed in violation of the student code of conduct, so the digital alterations were a solution to make sure all students were included in the yearbook. At this point the school is offering refunds to any parents calling about this issue. The school is receiving feedback from parents/guardians/students on making this process better for next year."
The school said it offered to refund parents' yearbook money, but the damage was already done. Students and parents told Ryan they understood what the school was trying to do, but that they went too far.
"Our daughters of Bartram deserve an apology," one anonymous mother said. "They are making them feel embarrassed about who they are."
Another mother told First Coast News that her daughter was being bullied after the photo edits made her a target.
Digitally altered yearbook photos angering parents in St. Johns County youtu.be
As of this afternoon, Ryan was unable to get any interviews with or additional responses from the school.
School dress codes have been under fire for some time now, as stories of girls being sent home for wearing outfits most people would not consider immodest have repeatedly gone viral. But these girls were not in violation of the school's dress codes, and photoshopping cleavage out of photos is just strange. Someone is looking for a problem where one doesn't exist, and placing the blame for the fictional problem on the wrong parties.
If someone sees a fold of skin at the top of a shirt in a high school yearbook and starts thinking dirty thoughts, that's on the viewer, 100 percent. There may be some people who think zero cleavage should ever be seen anywhere, but that's neither realistic or reasonabled. Unless you're wearing a turtleneck, cleavage happens with most fashionable clothing. And it happens more for some girls than others. Cleavage is literally just skin and tissue being pressed together—no one is showing actual cuppage or nipples or anything of the sort in these photos.
All this kind of policing does is make girls feel weird about their bodies and ashamed of the way their breasts come together at the top. It's unnecessary, controlling nonsense and it needs to stop. People can rightfully debate where a line should be drawn when it comes to appropriate yearbook photo attire, but a little bit of cleavage definitely should not be that line.
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Nicole Abate, a Registered Medical-Surgical Nurse living in New Mexico, starts her workday around 5:00 a.m. During her 20-minute drive to work, she gets to watch the sun rise over the Sandia Mountains as she sips her coffee.
"It's one of my favorite things to do," said Nurse Abate. "A lot of us need a little calm before the storm."
Nicole | Heroes Behind the Masks Presented by CeraVe youtu.be
In March 2020, after a fairly quiet start to the year, Nurse Abate's unit became the official COVID unit for her hospital. "It went full force after that," she says. Abate was afraid, overwhelmed with uncertainty, never knowing what was next on the wild roller coaster in this new territory, "just when you think ...we know exactly what we're doing, boom, something else hits so you adapt… that's part of nursing too." Abate faced her responsibilities courageously and with grace, as she always does, making life a little better for patients and their families "Thank you for taking care of my father," reads one recent letter from a patient's family. "You were kind, attentive and strong and we are truly grateful."
Nurses are accustomed to losing patients—it's part of the job. The difference for Nurse Abate during the pandemic was watching her patients go through it alone. That's what hit her hardest and prompted her to bring an iPad into a patient's room so that the family could say their goodbyes via FaceTime before the patient passed away. "I don't think I have a greater honor than to be the person to hold someone's hand while they take their last breath," she says.
"Nursing can be a traumatic field to work in," says Wendy Mason, PhD, a faculty member in the School of Nursing at Purdue University Global. "Nurses are exposed to pain and suffering and trauma, and we are often traumatized and not even realize it. If we aren't caring for ourselves, we can't care for others."
Self-care is important for workers in every field, but especially for nurses, who spend their working hours serving the needs of others. A recent study found that self-care reduces stress, replenishes a nurse's capacity to provide compassion and empathy, and as a result, improves the overall quality of care. But nurses aren't always very good at making themselves a priority.
Nurse Abate says that because she wasn't taught the importance of self-care early on in life, learning how to put herself first has always been a struggle. "As I've grown older, I realized it's imperative," said Abate.
"I'm stressed until I finally walk in the door and my dogs come up and greet me … it's hard with COVID because you come home and it's all over the news and you just can't escape it," said Nurse Abate. "It's very hard work but it's the most rewarding work that I've ever done in my life."
Abate feels she's become more resilient over the past year and a half, finding other ways to ground herself like taking walks, reading, and visiting her parents from a safe distance. While she's managed to make the best of a terrible situation, she's looking forward to getting back to her normal self-care routines of monthly massages, going to the gym with friends, and antiquing. After all, even nurse heroes need a little downtime.
CeraVe® is a brand rooted in the medical community and committed to supporting healthcare professionals. 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/.
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