WakeMed physician assistant relaxes with drums to help keep pace in marathon of COVID care

Amanda Edwards career as a physician assistant began with a plastic syringe from Fisher-Price. Her first patient was her baby sister. Edwards knew at a young age that life would prescribe her a white coat.

"I actually thought I was going to be a doctor," Edwards said.

She remembers thinking, "That is such a huge hospital. I can't imagine working there one day."

One day came, and now it's been 14 years that Edwards has been a physician assistant at WakeMed.

She was there when word came of a vicious virus that would sweep the planet.

"Initially, there was just so much adrenaline to get everything done and do everything correctly," she said.

But after months of pandemic patients, that adrenaline rush wore off. Work, in the intensive care unit, where she cared for the sickest of COVID-19 patients, became more of a marathon.

"Emotionally, it's exhausting," Edwards said. "Initially it was all so new. Now, the cases just continue, and it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to see the emotional turmoil that families go through."

That emotion extends to the personal connection Edwards tries to make with every patient.

"It's incredibly difficult to get to know patients and try to do everything we can, and they do not survive," she said.

She remains one of the hospital's biggest vaccine cheerleaders, winning over skeptics not with lectures but with logic and even a little love.

"It's usually not one conversation. It's usually multiple," she said. "It's usually revisiting their reasoning and just talking through it, human to human.

Edwards has learned to pace herself through the marathon, including taking a break by beating the drums. This mom of two is taking drum lessons.

"We jam to whatever music we want to, and that's incredible," she said. "That's happy for me."

Happiness keeps Edwards from skipping a beat as caregiver, comforter and COVID warrior.