community spotlight


There’s that nurse, on the frontlines, immune suppressed, and wearing the equivalent of tissue over her face because there’s no PPE available.


Helping the Helpers by Sheila Julson N


ormally, Candice Escobedo would be working on the front lines right alongside her fellow nurses


during the COVID-19 crisis. However, as a recent nurse practitioner graduate, she was looking for a collaborative physi- cian. “Texas state law requires that nurse practitioners must work with a delegat- ing physician,” shares Escobedo, a former pediatric oncology nurse, who notes that because many physicians and hospitals have liability concerns during the pandem- ic, nurse practitioners are unwillingly leſt on the sidelines, despite having skills and a desire to help. Escobedo soon realized there was


something she could do behind the scenes. T rough Texas COVID-19 Collabora- tive (TCC), the organization she formed in early March, Escobedo compiled a platform for collaboration among Austin area businesses and individuals to support healthcare workers during the pandemic. TCC, through NursesForNurses.org, helps source personal protective equipment (PPE), and health and wellness resources for fellow healthcare providers. T is passionate healthcare profes-


sional was inspired to form TCC aſt er seeing an emotional Facebook post from the daughter of a nurse who had ovarian cancer. “Her daughter was upset because she can’t talk to mom because she was quarantined,” Escobedo refl ects. “It sent me over the edge to see that child’s desperation


22 Austin Area Edition


and fear for her mom. T ere’s that nurse, on the frontlines, immune suppressed, and wearing the equivalent of tissue over her face because there’s no PPE available.” Still in its infancy, TCC has many


moving parts, and the collaboration has grown exponentially as Escobedo spends countless hours on the phone and on social media, marrying ideas with the people that can bring plans to fruition. So far, there’s been no shortage of people willing to come together to help those in the healthcare industry. Case Erickson, owner of Trucklandia, Austin’s annual food truck festival, along with author Lesa Rosseco of Keep Austin’ Eatin’ blog, are raising funds to allow hospitals to let food trucks come directly on site to serve healthcare workers. T ree separate initiatives spun off


from Keep Austin Eatin’s eff orts to feed healthcare workers: Texans Stronger To- gether raises funds to give 100 percent to local restaurants while feeding healthcare workers; Dell Children’s is raising money to give back to local restaurants to feed their healthcare workers on Food Truck Fridays; and St. David’s Initiative allows Austinites to adopt branches of hospitals and is raising money to give to restaurants to feed healthcare workers. Cheryl Cunningham, owner of the


food truck DFG Noodles, heard about TCC through a friend and called Escobedo to get more information about how she


AustinAwakenings.com ~Candice Escobedo


could put her contacts together to help workers in the medical field. Cun- ningham, like Escobedo, was moved by the stories of how medical workers are lacking PPE, and how some of those worker’s voices were being suppressed by management. “That was really alarming to me, especially during a time when we should be protecting our frontline workers. Without them, what do we have?” asks Cunningham, who learned that one of the biggest ob- stacles is a breakdown of communica- tion among the healthcare workers and needed goods and services, making it difficult to efficiently connect with each other. “They were all dependent on one person connecting to another by email or phone, one referral at a time, which is a very long process.” Cunningham approached DevTech,


a cloud-based technology development company, and came up with the idea of connecting all essential parties on one platform to eliminate referral-based com- munication. DevTech willingly placed priority to this project and worked nonstop in eff orts to contribute to their commu- nity. VoiceOutGlobal.com, the platform that arose from this collaboration, allows the medical community to express their concerns and needs to fi nd solutions. Users can communicate on the same platform all at once, which eliminates the need to rely on word-of-mouth contacts. “It also prevents any shady stuff or


mismanagement of our frontline people. It gives nurses and everyone in the medi- cal fi eld a voice,” says Cunningham, who along with Escobedo, envisions the Voice Out Global platform to be a one-stop shop for learning about multiple public, private, nonprofi t and government initiatives related to the pandemic.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32