Regis College senior Katryna Veasey '20 was one of four NCAA student-athletes featured by the NCAA to celebrate National Student-Athlete Day.

A leader on both the basketball and volleyball courts for Regis, Kat also serves as a frontline healthcare worker at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Milton in the fight against COVID-19.

Q & A with Katryna Veasey

What are your responsibilities at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital? Have they changed with the increase in COVID-19 cases?

As a CNA at Beth Israel Deaconess- Milton, my duties are to take patient vital signs, assist with feeding if the patient needs, getting them washed up, helping patients to and from the bathroom and help to ambulate them...overall helping the nurse out with anything he/she may need. My role has not changed much with the increased number of COVID-19 cases, I'm still doing everything to help the patient's within my scope of practice but just with more PPE and remembering to keep myself as well as the patient safe.

What inspired you to get involved at the hospital?

This is not part of a class nor clinical. I started working as a CNA the summer after my sophomore year so I could gain some more experience in the nursing world and overall prepare myself for when I graduate and become an RN.

How has your education at Regis helped you prepare for what you are doing now?

The Regis College Nursing program has prepared me immensely for this job with lectures, labs and clinical experience and I know that It will have given me all the tools I need to be a successful nurse for when I graduate and become an RN. I could not have been more fortunate to have had the opportunity to play the two sports I love while studying to become a nurse. It was definitely not easy but also the best experience I could've asked for.

What advice would you give other regarding the COVID-19 virus?

I encourage everyone to take this virus very seriously and listen to what's being said. You can make all the difference and be a huge part of the solution if you wash your hands, social distance and just stay home.