Waveny Staff and Residents Receive First COVID-19 Vaccine

Today is a joyous day at Waveny LifeCare Network’s Care Center – Waveny’s Skilled Nursing Facility. Staff and residents are receiving the first COVID-19 vaccine this morning. First to receive the vaccine were Russell R. Barksdale, Jr., President & CEO of Waveny LifeCare Network and Stephanie Schott, RN, Nurse Manager of the Waveny Care Center.

Other staff members in attendance were eager to receive the vaccine including:

Rachel Hepner, Director of Social Services and Brenda Jacobsen, M.Ed., Therapeutic Recreation Leader at the Waveny Care Center.

“Today is a historic day at Waveny for our residents, patients, and staff in the Care Center. We are thankful that our residents and patients have been given priority to what may be a life-saving vaccine against a virus that has indiscriminately hit the elderly the hardest. Everyone has sacrificed so very much over the past ten months to get us to this point and I couldn’t be happier for our residents and the staff that care for them,” said Russell R. Barksdale, Jr., President & CEO of Waveny LifeCare Network. “Our senior management team has been tracking both vaccines and we wanted to be the first to show others how much we believed in these protocols so others would feel comfortable following,” he said.

Today, over 84 staff and residents will be vaccinated at the Care Center, Waveny’s skilled nursing facility. Future dates for the rest of the Waveny staff and residents at the assisted living/memory/dementia care building and at the Inn, Waveny’s Independent Living building, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Here’s to a happier and healthier 2021 for all!