Los Angeles,
09
May
2020
|
07:57 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Family Celebrates Nurses Week and Mothers Day Amid COVID-19

In the Rue Family home, Nurses Week is a celebration times four. And Mothers Day is a special treat because they get to celebrate together. 

Carmen Rue, RN, and Gregg Rue, RN, and their two children are all nurses -- and all work at Cedars-Sinai. Carmen is a surgical nurse, while her husband, Gregg, is in interventional radiology. Their daughter, Melissa, is a nurse in an intensive care unit. Their son, Mark, specializes in taking care of patients who have undergone cardiothoracic surgery.

And it didn't happen by accident, said Carmen, who, like her husband, has been a nurse for more than 30 years. When it was time for their children to choose professions, Carmen and Gregg encouraged them to follow in their footsteps.

"We instilled a love of nursing in them growing up," said Carmen. "We consider it a very stable field and very good profession."

Mark was 16 years old when he had his first job as a nurses' aide. He remembers that after just a couple of weeks into that job, he thought to himself, "Whoa, my parents work really hard and go through a lot."

"After realizing nursing had a lot of financial stability, the variety of roles nursing offers, and of course the rewarding aspect of taking care of patients, I chose to pursue a nursing career at the University of Connecticut," Mark said.

Soon, Melissa followed suit.

The family moved to Los Angeles from New Jersey in 2009 when Carmen and Gregg joined Cedars-Sinai. The children followed shortly after, both joining the Cedars-Sinai New Graduate Residency Program.

Because they are all in different departments and sometimes on different shifts, Melissa said they rarely see each other at work, but "it's nice to know we have family support in the hospital."

One advantage , said Mark, is that his parents often drop off lunch for the siblings.

As a rule, when the family gets together, they try to avoid shop talk, but these days are different. Melissa is working full time with COVID patients and the family is concerned.

"At first we were worried about her and kept asking how she's doing," Carmen said, "but now I have confidence that Cedars-Sinai is really the place to be."

For her part, Melissa has been physical distancing from her family for the past two months, but she will be seeing her family this weekend for Mother's Day, which also is her parents' wedding anniversary.

"Our presence will be their presents," Melissa said.

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Supporting Our Staff Through COVID-19