New Job, New Reality - Alondra's Story
When Alondra began working in a new role this past March, she knew this career chapter would be full of changes. She didn’t realize though, how her flexibility would be challenged on a professional and personal level.
Alondra Cassidy, MSN, APRN, recently was appointed Hematology and Oncology Nurse Practitioner at The Christ Hospital Health Network, where she has worked as a registered nurse since 2013.
“COVID 19 hasn’t been easy,” says Alondra, “everything has to be re-arranged. And we know moving forward everything will continue to be different to a degree.”
Alondra’s first encounter with adaptation came with many questions about her new role: whether it would be maintained and how it would be defined. “I realized then I needed to be flexible and creative,” she says. “To help with the furloughs and budget cuts, I initially went back and worked in the clinic setting for a few weeks before settling into my new job.”
On a more personal level, Alondra had even more reasons to be flexible and adaptive. “My fiancé Chris and I had a wedding planned and hopes of buying a home this year, all of which are on hold. My 13-year old son couldn’t celebrate his milestone birthday in the big way we’d hoped. And like everyone else, our biggest challenge was all the uncertainty.” To manage, Alondra, Chris, and her son Julian found new ways of coping with the new routines and changing reality. Finding new ways to be active, entertain and socialize, has helped them become stronger as a family Alondra believes.
“When we found our patience getting short and tempers flaring those first couple of months, we realized by changing our attitude we could be more creative,” Alondra says. As the new reality continues to evolve, so will Alondra and her family. Lucky for her, she found a creative outlet for working through stress in a virtual social network of 17 women she met in February at a friend’s bachelorette event. Initially knowing only 4 ladies in the group, Alondra came away with 13 additional friends. Now they chat frequently, have weekend happy hours, and most importantly to Alondra, share emotions and give emotional support. “Because I haven’t been able to see my local friends, I’m so happy I found this group. It’s a safe place to share personal weaknesses and feelings – all without feeling judged. I’ve learned to not worry about the stigma (of sharing), or of worrying ‘they’ll think I’m crazy.’ Talking things through helps me to think things through and helps me to better understand others in my family too.”
Here are a few other activities Alondra and her family find helpful:
Finding new parks, lakes, tubing access and fishing holes, making it a weekend adventure
Acquiring outdoor bikes
Using online videos for indoor workouts
Incorporating healthy exercise and activities as part of Julian’s educational requirements
Loosening teen’s former screen time rules, if schoolwork and chores are completed
Creating an outdoor oasis with patio pavers and festive lights
Planning outdoor game nights and small, social distancing events
Alondra welcomes your creative ideas, especially considering the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons. Please share your ideas at by responding to this blog post!