Nursing Above And Beyond the Call: Enfield Hero

ENFIELD, CT — When times are tough, heroes emerge. We all know someone who's making a difference right now as we live through unprecedented times. Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these everyday heroes.

This submission comes from Racine L. Reberio, who nominated her mom, Rita Luongo of Enfield.

Is the nominee considered an “essential worker”?
Yes

What does the nominee do for work?
Visiting nurse, and vice president of New England Home Health Care

Why do you believe the nominee should be recognized or honored?
My mother began working in hospital services at the age of 15 as a candy striper, she was a teenage single mother at 18, and she worked multiple jobs including fast food services to support our family while she furthered her education. Our family relocated to Enfield in the late 1980s, fleeing from my abusive father. Upon our move to Enfield, she attended Asnuntuck, the former Greater Hartford and the University of Hartford, where she received her master's degree in Health Care Management with honors. While she attended Asnuntuck, she was featured in the local newspaper at the time for graduating at the same time as her mother when they both acquired degrees as dietitians with honors. She went on to work as a head surgical nurse at Hartford Hospital and Saint Francis; she has also been a floor nurse at many nursing homes throughout the state. In the late 1990s she decided to shift her career towards home health care; since then, she has visited hundreds or even thousands of the elderly, sick, handicapped, and persons with mental illness who needed medication, wound care, and routine wellness checks, working in the most pleasant, upbeat manner for all she serves in Hartford County, which includes Enfield. She can be seen around town in her black Hyundai making her visits. For the last 20 years, she was the director of nursing services at her employer, managing a staff of 300 people in her Windsor location. She also taught at Goodwin College for nursing while managing two branches of the company until recently, when she was promoted to vice president. She's also on an emergency response committee for medical professionals which kicks into gear in things like natural disasters and pandemics like COVID-19. Despite that, she continues to bring visiting nursing services into people's homes personally and with great pleasure, even though she really doesn't have to at this point in her career - she wants to. Before PPE was readily available to the greater population in March, she thought about those who were most vulnerable - the citizens of Hartford's inner city and urban areas that did not have access to PPE, or knowledge of how to protect themselves. So she hit the streets to hand out masks and perform community outreach without pay, speaking to elder Latino and African Americans about staying healthy and safe during this time. She was very concerned because so many people were walking around outside or riding buses without adequate protection and/or knowledge of how the virus spreads. We later learned that a greater number of urban individuals and African Americans did in fact contract COVID-19 and pass away due to the virus, as seen on the Oprah special and CNN special reports. My mother and her nursing staff at New England Home Health Care are still out there 7 days a week, on call 24 hours a day to bring masks, medicine, and important medical services to a diverse array of homebound individuals. My grandmother, the matriarch who encouraged my mom to follow her dreams, has had Alzheimer's since 2013; she resides with my mother, sister and stepfather, and the disease has affected all of us immensely. I oftentimes feel homecare workers are not highlighted as being on the front lines when they are. They home care for people recovering from COVID-19 which reduces the impact on hospitals and nursing homes. My mother is brave, a hard worker who is passionate about home health care which allows people to stay in the comfort of their own homes with their families. I can't tell you how many holidays, double shifts, work weeks with no time off she has undertaken so much to be a great nurse, or how many employees she helped progress in the field.

What’s one thing you want everyone to know about your hero?
A unique colorful nurse - better watch out, she has a big loud oou oou!!! like Wendy Williams upon arrival.

Thank you Rita for all that you do!

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