Spartan Spotlight: Samantha Seelinger DeMartino – Defending against COVID-19
5/13/2020 2:37:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a four-part feature series as USC Upstate Athletics, in partnership with the USC Upstate Mary Black School of Nursing, recognizes former student-athletes in the nursing profession in conjunction with International Nurses Day, Tuesday, May 12. The features include: Francis Gyau '16 '18 (men's soccer), Georgina (Libertino) Ravan '99 (women's tennis), Mia Raiff '20 (women's soccer).
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Growing up as an athlete, former USC Upstate women's soccer defender Samantha Seelinger DeMartino always wanted to be in the healthcare profession. Though at first she wanted to be a doctor, she says nursing ended up working out and being something she really loves. "I wanted to stick with something that was important to me, and that was health in general. I definitely think being an athlete paved that way for me," said DeMartino.
She completed nursing school at Upstate in 2015 and has been a nurse for the past five years. "Samantha is a smart, talented, young lady that excelled in the clinical setting as a great nursing student. She was very attentive to her patients and a team player with her fellow classmates. She always had a beautiful smile and positive demeanor," said senior nursing instructor Monique Jones, DNP, MSN, RN.
DeMartino began her nursing career on a medical-surge stepdown floor at Duke Raleigh Hospital in Raleigh, N.C. After being there for two years, she did a year of travel nursing in New York City, but has since returned to Duke Raleigh Hospital. She recently finished a family nurse practitioner program and after testing in a few weeks, she will eventually begin to transition into that role.
"Being on a med-surg floor working with adults, I see anything and everything from diabetes to hypertension, infection, all sorts of things. We're the mixing pot of the hospital, so we need to know a little about a lot of different diseases and management," DeMartino said.
DeMartino's unit is one of two, other than the ICU, that has been turned into a COVID-19 unit. Her team staffs two different units, so she doesn't find out if she will be working on a COVID-19 unit or not until she arrives for her shift. Though things have obviously changed a little bit, she says things are still the same in the way that she still goes to work with the same purpose every day. "At this point we've been doing this for about two months, so we're in kind of a routine and know how everything works," DeMartino said. "My hospital has been great about having PPE and I have to say I'm really grateful for where I work and the coworkers I have."
Other than being more conscious about hand washing and staying sanitized, DeMartino says her home life hasn't changed that much. "I told my husband at the beginning, 'hey this is what's going on, if you want to go stay with someone else that's fine,' but he was okay to stay home," she said. "I've had other coworkers that have gone to live with each other and leave their significant other or family out of fear. It hasn't affected me as much, but I know it has definitely affected others."
Interestingly enough, DeMartino says in a way she prefers to just be on a COVID-19 floor. "The great thing about being on the coronavirus unit is we have people watching us gown up and gown down, so it's really secure. I know I'm protected on the COVID-19 floors because we know those patients are infected," she said. "We've had instances where patients have had it on a regular unit and we didn't know, so we weren't protected."
DeMartino says the team aspect and communication skills she learned as a student-athlete have helped her in her nursing career. "Nursing is a team effort for sure," she said. "Every day, it's your patient you're going to see in the room, but you have other people to call upon. I've been really fortunate to have teammates like that and coworkers like that at the places I've worked. Also, the socialization aspect of soccer has helped me be able to better communicate with others and make connections. I definitely think being a student-athlete and being part of a team shaped me into the professional I am."
Furthermore, that team aspect during her time as a women's soccer player at Upstate is DeMartino's favorite memory of being a student-athlete. "That pregame camaraderie, getting ready to play, and that anxious, nervous feeling before going out on the field is what I miss most," she said.
An early challenge DeMartino faced in her career was transitioning into just being a professional in the working world after being a student-athlete. "You hold onto that identity of being a student-athlete for so long, not even just in college but your whole life, and it just ends out of nowhere," DeMartino explained. "In my first few years of nursing, it was hard to just identify as a nurse and not also an athlete." Another challenging part of nursing for DeMartino can be dealing with patients and their families, but she says it's just something you learn on the job.
DeMartino's biggest pieces of advice to new nurses are to just stick with it as well as to explore all areas of nursing. "Sometimes in nursing you have this idea of 'I'm gonna be a pediatric nurse or this kind of nurse,' and I had that idea too that I was going to be in a certain specialty, but I ended up in med-surg, and I love it," she said. She also says that there are some days where you feel like you know a lot and days where you feel like you know nothing. "Once you finally get to put everything into practice, you have to be confident even though there will be days where you're not going feel like you're doing well. Know that everything will end up okay," said DeMartino. "Everybody can become a successful nurse, but it just takes time. Just have that confidence and go in every day with a positive mindset."
DeMartino says she owes a lot to Upstate for supporting her during her time as a nursing student-athlete. "I was really fortunate that my teachers and coaches were great about working with my schedule and moving things around, allowing me to still do nursing as a student-athlete. I know a lot of people don't get that opportunity," she said. "The staff at Upstate was great and really accommodated for me in order to help me do what I wanted to do."
