Bella DeFabbo is used to making saves.
As the last line of defense for Duquesne's women's soccer team, the rising junior goalkeeper has made her share of stops on the turf of Rooney Field.
The Cranberry Township native has a new venue to patrol, located one block from her campus home between the posts – UPMC Mercy Hospital.
DeFabbo – a nursing major – is now making her saves as a patient care tech (PCT) at UPMC Mercy, where she assists nurses with various tasks such as taking vitals, washing up patients, and answering call bells.
The grind of being a Division I student-athlete and nursing major has suited DeFabbo well for her new position. Her days begin at 5:00 a.m. when she makes coffee and breakfast before leaving the house at 5:40 a.m. to get to the parking lot outside PPG Paints Arena. After taking a shuttle to the hospital, clocking in for the day and getting a report from the overnight PCT, she has a team meeting with all of the PCTs, nurses and the nurse lead at 7:00 a.m.
After the meeting, DeFabbo and the other PCTs divide the floor, grab vitals and hand out breakfasts for typically nine patients, and will wash up patients if requested. She charts any abnormalities for the nurses and then the process repeats for lunch and dinner.
After a month of eight-and-one-half hour shifts, DeFabbo has now moved to 12-hour shifts. Even after a lengthy shift, she finds a way to get a workout in and eat dinner before heading to bed around 9:00 p.m. every night. She has been training with her younger brother, Sam, a rising-senior boys' soccer player at Seneca Valley. With the local fields closed due to the pandemic, the DeFabbo duo has converted their backyard into a place to train.
"We make it work", DeFabbo said of the training schedule. "I'm kind of non-stop with anything that I do."
Being a Division I student-athlete that majors in nursing, managing her time is nothing new for Bella.
"I like the early classes," she continued. "We have later practices at night. I get my classes out the way in the morning and then just do homework until practice. Whenever I'm not in class, you will probably see me in the library. I'm not a big nap taker."
While everything has worked out to plan for DeFabbo and her job as a PCT, there was a chance it wouldn't happen due to COVID-19.
In late February, DeFabbo received an email from Kate DeLuca, Duquesne University's Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the School of Nursing about an open house at UPMC Mercy. The open house was an event that explained all of the programs and benefits that the hospital offered. With no immediate plans of employment for the summer, DeFabbo took the opportunity and seized it. DeFabbo talked to a nurse lead at one of several tables at the open house and was being interviewed without really knowing it. On the spot, the nursing lead told Bella that she would be in touch.
The rest is history.
A few weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the nation. The chance to be a PCT was put in jeopardy.
"I wanted to work the entire time, but my parents were weary at first," DeFabbo said of the opportunity. "I guess I'm lucky that I started in May. It's (COVID-19) kind of controlled now. We had a lot of talks back and forth all of March and April on if I was going to start or not. I'm lucky I was able to start."
As her classes and clinicals transitioned to online, being a PCT has given DeFabbo a chance to experience the hands-on experience that she was missing.
"I think Duquesne did a great job transitioning to online classes, but being online doesn't compare to actually being there," DeFabbo said. "I lost half of the semester to online assignments about fake patients about what you would do, instead of speaking to the patients in person. Being a PCT is helping a lot with being hands on. When I started clinical my first semester, I was a little intimidated that I had to wake up a patient at 7:00 a.m. so that I could take their vitals. Now, I can confidently walk into a patients' room – tell them good morning and that I'm sorry that I have to wake them up – but that I have to take vitals. This job has helped my confidence level a lot."
Whether it's 12-hour shifts at UPMC Mercy, or a 12-hour day on-campus, time management and working as a team with soccer and nursing go hand-in-hand. There are plenty of similarities on the pitch and in the hospital.
"Like anything in the healthcare field, you have to work as a team," DeFabbo said of her duties as a PCT. "I'm working with the nurses. When I graduate, I will be working with PCTs, dieticians, physical therapists, occupations all that have the same common goal, which is the patient. In soccer, you're working as a team and your common goal is winning a championship. It's completely the same."
With immense dedication and time invested in the classroom, on the pitch and the hospital, DeFabbo is prepared to adapt to anything thrown (or kicked) in her direction.
