How my CIC® Helped During Hurricane Katrina

Hi, I am Linda Polo and have been working in Infection Prevention since 1981. I worked at Chalmette Medical Center in Chalmette, LA for 25 years. When the certification exam became available, I opted not to take it. I was well respected in my hospital and thought that I really did not need the extra initials behind my name to show people how qualified I was.

During one of our Joint Commission Surveys, an inspector asked to see my education file. I had the largest file of all of the hospital personnel at CMC. I always stayed on top of things and kept myself well educated in the field of infection prevention. The surveyor was impressed with my file but she said she had no way of knowing how competent I was. She wrote a note in her report that the next time we were surveyed that I would be certified.

I studied for and took the exam and passed. I never really thought anything about my certification until Hurricane Katrina. My hospital was destroyed and later leveled to the ground. On the Thursday after the storm I was in Lake Charles, LA staying with my mother and father when I heard that there was an urgent need for medical professionals in St. Tammany Parish. My husband and I packed up, bought generators, food, water, chain saws and gas and headed back to see what was left of our house and to help out.

Luckily we still had a house without water damage. We did have many trees down and you could not walk through the yard due to all of the debris. I spent most of the day picking up and about 4:00 p.m. decided to take a ride to Slidell Memorial Hospital to see if I could help. I had on the same pair of shorts and shirt I had been working in all day and was hot and sweaty. I put on a baseball hat to cover my hair and headed off to the hospital. One of my neighbors commented that I should clean up before I went but I told them I was just going to sign up and would clean up when I actually started work.

When I drove up to the hospital I noticed all of the entrances where being manned by the National Guard carrying guns. I went to the command center outside of the building and told them that I was here to sign up to help and they sent me to the command center in the building set up in a main hall on the second floor. I told the person at the desk that I was a Certified Infection Preventionist. The Director of Nurses was in a room nearby and heard me talking. He heard I was certified, he came out, introduced himself and hired me. Their Infection Preventionist had resigned a few weeks ago. He handed me a clipboard and asked that I walk through the facility and tell them what had to be done.

These people trusted me because I was certified! I asked for keys to the building and proceed to look in every nook and cranny for evidence of water and damage. I helped make the decisions as to when units were allowed to reopen such as ICU, ambulatory surgery admitting and the Oncology Clinic.

I thought that I would be a Chalmette Medical Center until the end of my career. Never in a million years did I think that I would need to be certified or that I would lose my hospital and my friends. Without my certification, life would have been so different. It is the best thing that I have ever done for myself. It is my certification and I can take it anywhere. I have since left Slidell Memorial Hospital and am now the Department Head of Infection Prevention and Employee Health at St. Tammany Parish Hospital. Life is good!