The Fall River municipal meeting on May 11, 2022, was a Nurses Recognition Ceremony dedicated to honoring the city's public health nurses for their service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Paul Coogan opened the ceremony by acknowledging the crucial role nurses played in fighting the pandemic and read a proclamation declaring May 6th as Public Health Nurses Day. The Mayor specifically recognized Leslie Monas and Deb Corsier for their exceptional dedication, highlighting their daily efforts in managing the pandemic response. Tess Curran, who worked closely with the nurses, also spoke, detailing Monas's role in developing protocols and Corsier's management of both COVID-19 surveillance and other communicable diseases over her seven years of service. The ceremony concluded with Tyra Lee, representing Rip Fiola's office, Paul Schmidt, and Alan Silvia, presenting citations to Leslie Monas and Deb Corsier for their tireless dedication.
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all right so obviously uh nurses day in the pandemic we're just coming out of hopefully um we still see we're dealing with it but i'm hoping things are getting better uh nurses carried the weight they played a key role in all aspects of fighting the pandemic we're here to honor a couple of our in-house nurses but nurses across the city of fall river and across the state and across the country whether they're
0:31in hospitals nursing homes assisted living visiting nurses they all got thrust into this battle and overwhelmingly they all did a five-star job it's very very important with that being said we're going to um we were supposed to do this last week but we were battling covet on that day also so we weren't able to have the ceremony so the first thing we're going to talk about is nurses day and a proclamation
1:01whereas public health professionals help communities present prepare for withstand and recover from the impact of the full range of health threats including disease outbreaks such as covert 19 and public health action together with scientific and technological advances has played a major role in restricting and in some cases eliminating the spread of infectious disease and establishing today's disease
1:29surveillance and control systems and today was actually may 6 as we recognize our heroic nurses and the essential work they do and whereas we celebrate the nursing profession and reflect on its commitment and dedication to public health and to provide our communities and honor them with their courageous and dedicated service especially during these extremely difficult times public health health nurses have risen
2:00to the call and to serve the communities and we are grateful for their selfless sacrifices and whereas today nurses continue to touch the lives of every member of our community providing care to residents in the city of fall river and across the commonwealth whereas i mayor paul coogan asked for all the residents of the city of fall river to join me in honoring the public health nurses who care for all of us and
2:32whereas the residents of the city of fall river celebrate public health nurses and show our appreciation for the city's public health nurses not just during this one day but in every opportunity we have i paul coogan mayor of fall river proclaim may 6th which passed as public health nurses day or just nurses day and i probably have to give this to one of them but we'll talk to him in a second thank you thank you
3:09oh that's beautiful now let's see i got elected in january and we come rolling in here and um i was looking at a nursing home out in the state of washington and i said to myself boy that looks like a weird disease i wonder what this is going to do and it was on our doorstep in a matter of weeks we closed down government center on march 16th and we had to add another public health
3:40nurse which turned out being to be leslie and we had debbie and tess and the crew down there at the throttle we worked together every single day during covert on the numbers the counts the supplies ppe who needed what what nursing home where's the outbreaks and it was a long extended struggle and our in-house nursing team probably got to know me better than they wanted to but i was down there every day
4:15and working with them in any way shape or form to try to help the residents of fall river um to have a fast recovery from covert if they had it and stay away from them from it if they didn't get it i also want to acknowledge rick aguiar and his team i saw mr oliveira here these those guys at the ems and em ama i get them always mixed up did a
4:43great job they were right on the front lines with us throughout the battle uh tim's crew did testing transition to vaccinations then back to testing and it's just and it goes on and on and on but the two nurses i want to call up definitely went over and above they ground it out every day in here and first i'd like to acknowledge leslie monas an honor and recognition and dedicated service to the city of fall
5:11river during the covet 19 pandemic
5:23and um second of all i want to um acknowledge the veteran she's been with fall river longer than i have so don't hold it against me but she's done she did a great job she has a good calm demeanor about her and she kept the building the city and our health issues running as smoothly as a public health nurse could she did a great job i want to honor deb corsier and for her
5:54dedicated service to the city of fort hall and i was also going to let her speak but i did that once in a meeting and it turned out horrific so we're not doing an accident um and and that that's the ceremony for today but i appreciate everyone coming out and oh i forgot of course i do have to say that shows you how bad i am because the two nurses overwhelmed me um tess
6:22curran who i didn't know would go to these department head meetings and she'd sit up in the back on the left and i'm like who is that woman who's that one i don't know her yet but i got to know her she and i had some epic battles over basketball hoops shutdowns masks and she's a very very capable opponent don't let anyone kid you she's a little smaller than me but i'm still afraid of her
6:48and she did a great job managing the pandemic so we gotta let her come up and say a few words i apologize i completely uh forgot about her but uh test current thanks mayor um thank you so much for uh being here i'm so happy to be here today um so that we can publicly recognize deb and leslie for all that they've done um for the department and for us as a city um
7:18it has been a very long 26 months and counting and deb and leslie really shouldered the burden throughout the entire pandemic they've done all of the contact tracing case acknowledgment disease investigation for the cases since they hit in march of 2020.
7:41they came to this building every day during lockdown along with some other members of the health department kathy who's here to conduct disease investigation which is really the bread and butter of public health disease surveillance and before covet a lot of folks didn't know what the health department did what our public health nurses did um and what kind of what we were doing on a daily basis and i think that's one
8:08of the positive things that came out of kovitt is that you know the whole world knows the importance of public health nursing now um and the significance that that you both play um in the community so um jumping way back to march 2020 leslie called the city to offer her services when we thought it was going to be a two-week shutdown and immediately rolled up her sleeve stove right in
8:35kind of just immersed herself in the team became a part of the team leslie's main focus has been covid over the last two years you helped to develop protocols and policies and kept the department organized and the cases organized and kept everybody on track um i'm sure there's been a lot of days that you've regretted making that phone call but we are so happy and i'm so happy that you're now a permanent part of the
9:03team um and that you're continuing to be with us even as we kind of transition slowly out of out of covid and while covid cases were surging other communicable diseases were still coming across the board and deb really kind of both handled some covid surveillance as well as managing all of the other communicable diseases that we see on a daily basis deb has been here for seven years as the
9:34as the mayor has mentioned um and continues to go above and beyond for all of um her patients um i'm sure many of us of people in this room have seen deb driving around the city which she goes to you know her doc patients visit she crosses the city sometimes picks up furniture along the way if if she finds something and is really just an asset to the community your patients are so lucky to have you
10:06deb we're so lucky that you're in the department you keep us entertained and on our toes and you are as committed to public health nursing as i think anybody can be um and dev has been recognized um throughout the state and has done some um uh presentations on uh patient interactions and um patient outcomes and so she's not only you know an asset here to us in fall river but also throughout throughout the
10:35commonwealth i've said it so many times but we as a city are so lucky to have you both the impact that you have on the city of fall river is significant and it extends well beyond cobot 19.
10:51you know you've given so much to the department again and to the city you've you've sacrificed time with your family and and you know i'm just so glad that we're here today to publicly recognize you for all that you've done and i'm just so glad that i get to work with you both every day thank you and i'm going to pass it over to ty uh tyra tyra lee from um rip fiola's office hello
11:20i'm actually representing for paul schmidt and alan silvia as well and these are two citations for your tireless dedication to the health and safety of our residents during the covet 19 crisis so we wanted to thank you both deb yeah yeah this one is yours that's nice thank you tell them thank you appreciate it thank you wonderful that's very nice
11:53all right everybody we have some cake over there but one thing i did learn during the pandemic is you don't get between a nurse and cake so i know that they'll go first and uh and again i appreciate everybody coming out today thank you