Karen Sigond, R.N. of Berne says her mother and grandmother taught her to sew and to recycle things. So she has used colorful scraps from her quilting projects to make hundreds of masks for people who need them. “That’s how I grew up,” she says. Her thought with the mask project was: “Let me use what I have,” she says in this week’s podcast. That statement seems to be a metaphor for her life. Sigond wanted to be a nurse since she was a child in a small northern New York town. Her father was a nursing assistant and she volunteered as a Candy Striper in a local hospital. She went to the Albany Medical School of Nursing, where she appreciated the hands-on learning, and still works at Albany Med. She later pursued a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree while raising, with her husband, three boys — all the while continuing her nursing career. She recalls taking books to Little League games and doing her schoolwork on the kitchen table during weekends. As an Intensive Care Unit manager, she did research on the importance of communicating with families. She was also part of a national collaboration on increasing organ donations for transplants. Now that Albany Med and some other area hospitals are opening up for elective surgeries, Sigond says, “Hospitals are safe places. People should not be afraid to have surgery.” She urges, “Get the care you need.”

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