Through a Pandemic, BMCC Nursing Students Persevere to Graduation

Following the lighting of the Nurse's Lamp, graduates of the two-year nursing program take the Nurse's Oath. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The stirring strains of “Pomp and Circumstances” filled a nearly empty Borough of Manhattan Community College theater last week as the processional began for 78 graduates from the school’s rigorous two-year nursing program. 

Though Covid-19 restrictions meant that families and friends had to watch the ceremony remotely, cheers for each other rang loudly as the graduates were “pinned” on their bright white uniforms, a tradition of nursing school commencements

On hand to deliver the keynote address was a former—and now famous— BMCC nursing school graduate, wearing the pin she received on that stage 27 years ago. It was Sandra Lindsay, who, before a national TV audience last December, became the first person in the U.S. to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. 

It was a hero’s welcome-back for the much celebrated nurse, who served in the intensive care trenches during the worst of times last year.

“I know how much you had to accomplish to get to this initiation into the esteemed nursing profession,” Lindsay, director of critical care nursing at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, told the graduates. “Even if we were not in the middle of a global pandemic, which hopefully by now is on the run, I would be proud of you. That context makes today even more remarkable.”

Lindsay, who had gone on to receive her bachelor's degree, two masters, and just this year a doctorate in health sciences, said Covid-19 has “changed our rules as nurses.”

“It has amplified our responsibilities,” she said. “We’ve had many more patients to take care of, we have had to show more flexibility, adaptability, resilience and strength.” 

“Of course,” she added, “it’s difficult for more to be asked of you every day at work. The pandemic has been a very tough teacher. But I have good news for you. We nurses, and of course you nurses, are up to the task. Because the truth is that we nurses have always been asked to do more.”

Lindsay understands that all too well. Between March and May of 2020, she headed a team of hundreds of critical care nurses treating three times more patients than the intensive care unit would normally handle. 

“Some days, I don’t know how I got through it,” she told the New York Times in December. “Some days I didn’t know how I got home, but I knew I had to rest and get ready to come back and do it again. Because I did not want to leave my team to do it alone.”

Lindsay’s appearance came at the invitation of Nursing Club President Tracey Smith, who said she was “the happiest person alive” when the star nurse accepted.

“What stood out about her at first was the Covid-19 vaccination,” Smith recalled. “But when I did additional research on her I realized that her background was Jamaican like myself. And her story resonates with me. When I look at her I see somebody I would like to emulate. A strong, black, educated woman. So that pushed me more.”

Lindsay has said she wanted to serve as an example to the Black community, where there has been more resistance to the vaccine. And that example had a special resonance at BMCC. In a poll taken at the college in March, 48% of students and 36% percent of faculty and staff said they either were hesitant to take the vaccine, or would avoid it.

Being a role model, she told the graduates, “was certainly on my mind when I received the first Covid vaccine. And I think the Covid vaccine has given each of us a chance to be a role model. In this case we’re being asked to protect ourselves so we can practice our profession more safely.”

“It’s an opportunity to grab on to a much brighter future after a very dark year,” she added.

As in most schools, administrators had to quickly adjust to remote teaching. But for the nursing school, with its hands-on instruction, that presented bigger challenges. “When the Covid hit we had to become creative,” Judy Eng, chair of the nursing program, said in a phone interview. “And we had to figure out a way to do serious clinical learning virtually.”

For the students, many of them with children or other family members at home, and with job losses in many families as well, the challenges were even more daunting. 

“Having three kids and studying at home, that was the hardest part,” said Haby Diallo, the mother of 5-, 4- and 2-year-olds. “I used to study at BMCC after my class. When the pandemic hit I had to stay home and study, and we were all in one small space. It was hard to focus.”

“This is not an easy time for anyone but for nursing students to be that resilient and to meet the demands of nursing school, it’s a lot,” Eng said. 

But, she added, “It’s only making them stronger because they are the ones who are going to help take care of the next patients. The people who need help out there.”