Haifa Petro, ICP, CIC

Location: Amman

Title: Infection Control Head Departmant

Company/Organization: Al-Khalidi Medical Center

First Certified: February 2021

My awareness of COVID-19 was in January 2020 when I read a brief from WHO about an emerging outbreak in China. The reports clarified that the outbreak is monitored and hopefully, it will be controlled. No cases were yet reported in Jordan or in the nearby countries. The Disaster Team in my facility called for an urgent meeting to set plans to face the outbreak. Our greatest challenge was to convince the medical team that COVID-19 is an existing reality. Most people denied the presence of the outbreak. I formulated a team to support infection control practices and started a wide hospital awareness for all staff and patients. We established a new isolation area to care for the COVID-19 patients. We limited the points of entry to our facility to control visitors and to triage them upon arrival. We minimized visiting hours and prohibited children from entering the facility. The Defense Law was applied to oblige everybody to abide to rules and regulations. Our success was maintaining the Oxygen supply for our patients consuming high flow oxygen and on ventilators. We lived difficult stressful times facing death on daily basis; patients regressed without notice. We maintained our high spirit working in teams to support each other. I have supported the Ministry of Health staff by performing workshops to help them face the surge. I would like to honor Mr. Maher Mohammad for his support to attain my CIC certification empowering my actions. I would also like to honor my mentor Dr. Jamal Wadi, FIDSA who never failed to teach me. Finally, my honor goes to my role model, my sister, Prof. Wasileh Petro-Nustas who always believed in me.

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