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Former Cardinal Katie Walz First Health Care Worker in Cincinnati to Receive COVID Vaccine
January 05, 2021 | Women's Soccer
CINCINNATI, Ohio - While former Louisville women's soccer player Katie Walz studied nursing at the university, she never anticipated that in a few short years she would experience the toughest nine months of her life, caring for patients suffering from a virus that spawned a global pandemic.
Fitting, then, that when a vaccine finally arrived to ebb and hopefully put an end date on this difficult time in her career, she had no clue she would be the first in the greater Cincinnati area to receive it.
"When there were multiple cameras pointed at me and people clapping after I got the vaccine, I turned to someone next to me and asked them 'Was I the first one?,'" Walz said of the moment.
Walz never expects to be the center of attention. Nurses typically don't.
For the past nine months while the rest of the country and the world have fought to find normalcy during an unprecedented situation, normalcy has never emerged as an option for Walz and her colleagues.
During this time, Walz has seen more death and suffering than she has ever seen, more than she anticipated when she decided to become a nurse as a young teenager looking to follow in the footsteps of multiple family members.
"Working in the ICU, we work in a lot of high-stress situations with a lot of really sick patients, but I don't think a pandemic ever really crossed my mind," Walz said. "Maybe the thought of a natural disaster or something like that, but never a pandemic."
Still, Walz said her time at Louisville – both in the classroom and on the pitch – helped prepare her for the moment.
This is most obvious in relation to the team aspect of working as a registered nurse in a hospital during stressful situations. While doctors hand out diagnoses and direct care, nurses function as a well-oiled machine that ensures all patients are receiving maximum care, sometimes even functioning as advocates for their patients.
This not only comes with a lot of physical labor, but emotional labor as well, which requires decompression that nurses generally lean on each other to provide.
But less obvious is the way it has helped Walz compartmentalize the losses associated with being on the frontlines of healthcare in a pandemic. Certainly, the stakes of her job know are far higher than any soccer game, but Walz said her job would be impossible if she took every failure personally.
"You have to feel the loss," Walz said. "It's painful and upsetting. You have to let yourself feel that.
"But then you have to remember that there are going to be more patients the next day that need your help, and they may be the ones that survive. You really embrace the patients that you see make it out of there."
So when she was approached about potentially taking the vaccine in early December, Walz said she felt a weight lift off her shoulders.
Not because she could shield herself from the virus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans and nearly 2 million people worldwide. And not because she'd get to be the first in the Cincinnati area – she didn't even realize that would be the case.
But because it served as a sign of hope. A proverbial dove in the window that there might be an end to this pandemic in the near future and that the seemingly senseless death she has been subjected to might one day end.
"It felt surreal," Walz said. "This has been the focus of every aspect of my life, at work and at home, for the past nine months. For the vaccine to actually be here felt… yeah, it was a relief and surreal and a lot of emotions.
"It's the first time that it really felt like there might really be an end."
She may not wear a uniform anymore, but Katie Walz represents the University of Louisville every time she puts on her scrubs and starts her shift. And while she may not like being the center of attention, she was proud to do so once again by being a small part of a massive moment in our world's current history, if only because it meant she might be able to help more people.
"I'm always happy to represent Louisville," Walz said. "I spent the best years of my life there and it helped mold me into the person I am today. If I'm doing something good, I'm always happy that Louisville is connected to that.
"It was a bit overwhelming. I don't necessarily enjoy being the center of attention. But I guess if it was going to be for something, I'm glad it was to promote the vaccine, and I hope that it will do some good and encourage more people to get it when it becomes available."
Fitting, then, that when a vaccine finally arrived to ebb and hopefully put an end date on this difficult time in her career, she had no clue she would be the first in the greater Cincinnati area to receive it.
"When there were multiple cameras pointed at me and people clapping after I got the vaccine, I turned to someone next to me and asked them 'Was I the first one?,'" Walz said of the moment.
Walz never expects to be the center of attention. Nurses typically don't.
For the past nine months while the rest of the country and the world have fought to find normalcy during an unprecedented situation, normalcy has never emerged as an option for Walz and her colleagues.
During this time, Walz has seen more death and suffering than she has ever seen, more than she anticipated when she decided to become a nurse as a young teenager looking to follow in the footsteps of multiple family members.
"Working in the ICU, we work in a lot of high-stress situations with a lot of really sick patients, but I don't think a pandemic ever really crossed my mind," Walz said. "Maybe the thought of a natural disaster or something like that, but never a pandemic."
Still, Walz said her time at Louisville – both in the classroom and on the pitch – helped prepare her for the moment.
This is most obvious in relation to the team aspect of working as a registered nurse in a hospital during stressful situations. While doctors hand out diagnoses and direct care, nurses function as a well-oiled machine that ensures all patients are receiving maximum care, sometimes even functioning as advocates for their patients.
This not only comes with a lot of physical labor, but emotional labor as well, which requires decompression that nurses generally lean on each other to provide.
But less obvious is the way it has helped Walz compartmentalize the losses associated with being on the frontlines of healthcare in a pandemic. Certainly, the stakes of her job know are far higher than any soccer game, but Walz said her job would be impossible if she took every failure personally.
"You have to feel the loss," Walz said. "It's painful and upsetting. You have to let yourself feel that.
"But then you have to remember that there are going to be more patients the next day that need your help, and they may be the ones that survive. You really embrace the patients that you see make it out of there."
So when she was approached about potentially taking the vaccine in early December, Walz said she felt a weight lift off her shoulders.
Not because she could shield herself from the virus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans and nearly 2 million people worldwide. And not because she'd get to be the first in the Cincinnati area – she didn't even realize that would be the case.
But because it served as a sign of hope. A proverbial dove in the window that there might be an end to this pandemic in the near future and that the seemingly senseless death she has been subjected to might one day end.
"It felt surreal," Walz said. "This has been the focus of every aspect of my life, at work and at home, for the past nine months. For the vaccine to actually be here felt… yeah, it was a relief and surreal and a lot of emotions.
"It's the first time that it really felt like there might really be an end."
She may not wear a uniform anymore, but Katie Walz represents the University of Louisville every time she puts on her scrubs and starts her shift. And while she may not like being the center of attention, she was proud to do so once again by being a small part of a massive moment in our world's current history, if only because it meant she might be able to help more people.
"I'm always happy to represent Louisville," Walz said. "I spent the best years of my life there and it helped mold me into the person I am today. If I'm doing something good, I'm always happy that Louisville is connected to that.
"It was a bit overwhelming. I don't necessarily enjoy being the center of attention. But I guess if it was going to be for something, I'm glad it was to promote the vaccine, and I hope that it will do some good and encourage more people to get it when it becomes available."
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