Retired nurse looks for ways to help Alberta in fight against COVID-19

CALGARY — A retired nurse, watching the fourth wave of COVID-19 crash through Alberta.

Laura Comfort is fighting the internal battle so many of those who have retired from the profession face: “How can I help?”

But rather than sitting back and letting others help, she’s trying to see if she can get back in the field, as health officials call on retired nurses and doctors to step in.

“They know how to do that, they’ll call down the list in terms of, you know, the people who have just retired and have those skills, and then the people who are just outside of that who have the skills, and down, and down, and down until they would get to someone like me,” said Comfort.

Comfort was a nurse in 2011 and 2012. She took her medical skills into the legal field and is now a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer.

She says she wants to help patients and relieve some stress from old co-workers still in the field.

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To be a registered nurse, you have to consistently complete hours of work. Comfort hasn’t been a nurse since 2012, but she says that under the public health act, there’s a provision that allows the Minister of Health, or health region, to make exceptions to extend capacity potentially beyond registered members.

“If those types of exemptions, or if the call was made, I feel that I would probably be better suited to kind of fill in from the bottom and relieve people who may be able to go up,” said Comfort. “So things like, maybe a less acute nursing ward where there are nurses who could be used in the ICU or critical care settings or who could be trained where their skills are more up to date.

“I have a lot of experience with IM, intermuscular injection, so can I relieve a nurse whose doing immunizations so that they can go help.”

In a statement to CityNews, the College and Association of Registered Nurses (CARNA) says:

“Employers have identified qualified individuals for us, and if all requirements are met by the applicant their permits are approved within 2-3 business days. There are a few types of permits individuals have received during the pandemic including: A permit only for vaccine administration, courtesy permit, and emergency permit for COVID-19 response.”

Comfort has reached out to CARNA in hopes that they might be able to identify an area for her to use her old skills in this public health crisis.