An interview with Mike McCloskey

The Facebook post caught my eye. Usually, a day or so after someone’s birthday on FB, a person will post a thank you to all the well-wishes they received. Mike McCloskey did that, along with a funny and entertaining post, but also the interesting nugget that he spent part of his 30^th birthday in a hazmat suit, testing complete strangers for the Covid-19 virus. Yesterday was National Nurses Day, but we can continue the sentiment today in the Pandemic Papers with an interview with Mike, a 2012 Marist graduate and former record-setting sprinter on our team, who is now a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Mike was part of our first really great wave of sprinters in the assistant coach Terry Horton era; he also was in that cohort of sprinters who had to weather the storm of losing the old McCann Center indoor track for practice (it was shuttered in March of 2011), a time in which several sprinters simply walked away from the program. Mike endured, persevered and shined right to the end of his career. Like so many of our alums, Mike has done great things in his post-Marist career, his pathway in the health professions twisting and turning a few different ways. We are proud of all our alums, but in this pandemic time, we are especially mindful of frontline medical workers like Mike, who sometimes expose themselves to greater risk. Thanks to Mike for returning my questions so quickly. We hope he and all others stay safe in their work with this virus.

Let’s go back in time … how did you first get interested in Marist (were you recruited?) and what made you choose Marist over other schools you might have been considering?

I had several friends from high school, who were a grade or two older than me, who recommended I look at Marist. I was originally interested in playing hockey. However, I then started sprinting my junior year of high school and didn’t do so bad, so I was recruited as a sprinter for Marist. I chose Marist over the other schools because it was a good distance from my hometown, it was the size school I was looking for, and I wanted to run track in college, and it seemed like a good fit for me.

What was your major at Marist, what year did you graduate and what are some of your memories academically?

I was a Biology major with a Psych minor and I graduated in 2012. Academically, I remember studying constantly, to just barely pass chemistry! I loved Anatomy and Physiology, and immunology was another one of my favorite classes. Marist was a great school to take classes at because the classroom sizes were not too big, and it was right when online classes were just starting to take off.   

When did you decide to pursue a career in nursing and how did Marist help you prepare for your career?

My senior year of Marist, I was debating between going to PA (physician assistant) school or nursing school.  I did not get into any PA schools, except for one, however I was wait listed and it was really far away from where I lived, so I decided to apply for an accelerated second bachelor’s nursing school in Amherst, Mass. At that time, my goal was to become a nurse practitioner, and I figured that was the first step.  Marist prepared me for the academic aspect of nursing school, but nothing can prepare you for the clinical aspect! Marist classes were generally pretty challenging and required lots of studying, so studying in nursing school was not as difficult to adjust to, especially since it was all focused on one subject, rather than several.

Tell us about your education and career path after you left Marist. When and where did you go to nursing school, when did you graduate and what are you doing now?

So, after I graduated Marist in May, 2012, I started a second Bachelor’s nursing program at UMass Amherst in September, 2012. I was there for approximately 17 months and graduated in December, 2013 with my BS in Nursing. I then started working a Pediatric Float Nurse in January, 2014 till December 2018. During that time, I took online classes at UMass Amherst to get my Doctorate of Nursing Practice to become a Family Nurse Practitioner, and have been working as one since December, 2018.

Tell us a little about your family life – how and when did you meet your wife, when did you get married and how has the pandemic affected both you and your wife?

So, my wife and I met while working at Albany Medical Center, both as RNs. She is a registered nurse and we met while both working nightshift in the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit). We got married in July, 2019, and it’s been amazing! My wife now works as an RN for an insurance company, so luckily, she can do her job from home, but she is still extremely busy. However, that has been great since it limits her exposure to COVID. I’m currently working in a primary care office, so I’ve had several incidences with possible or known exposure, but we have strict protocols in order to protect ourselves as best we can. My patient load has decreased by about half since the beginning of the pandemic, because we are trying to keep people out of the office to limit everyone’s potential exposure to COVID. We have switched to TeleMedicine/TeleHealth, which has greatly helped reduce the number of people entering the office each day.

You were a top-notch sprinter during your time at Marist. What are some of your fondest memories as a student-athlete and how were you able to succeed as a sprinter at a school without on-campus track facilities?

My two greatest memories from being a sprinter at Marist were definitely in my senior year when me, Darren Bushey, Tyler Schwarz and Jesse Aprile broke the 4x100 school record by 0.3 seconds, and secondly, for my last race ever, I was placed in the 4x400 as the anchor, as a last-minute switch, and ended up running a 52.6 split, which for anyone who knows me, running more than 200m was NOT my strongest attribute. I still don’t know how that was possible!  Not having a track at Marist was pretty difficult, especially as a sprinter, since majority of our training involved practicing starts and handoffs, however, we made it work with what we had. We would run in the McCann Center when we could, run along the campus when it was nice out, and Coach Terry would bring us to local tracks to work on hand-offs and starts for relays. 

Are you still running and exercising now? If so, to what extent …?

I wish I could still run, in any capacity, like I used to in college! I’m definitely not in shape like that. I do, however, generally wake up between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. to go to the gym and lift weights before work during the week, however, I haven’t been able to do that due to the COVID and the quarantine. I’ve tried doing some home workouts, but they aren’t the same.

Let’s talk about the Covid-19 situation. How has it affected your work and how are you managing it so far? I noticed on FB that you spent your 30^th birthday in a Hazmat suit. What was THAT like?

So far it hasn’t changed my workflow dramatically, except for the fact that we are trying to switch to TeleHealth/TeleMedicine as much as we can. We now have strict protocols when entering the building and any individual has to be screened for a fever before coming in. If they have a temperature, they are given a telephonic appointment with me and I try to set them up for COVID testing. It can be a little stressful because everyone presents slightly different with the virus. Some people have no symptoms and other people have moderate to severe symptoms, so you never know what you are walking into. The hazmat suit was a very interesting experience. I’m glad I got to do it because it was a great opportunity to help the community and to show the type of protections the medical community is taking against this virus. Luckily, I felt very safe in the hazmat suit, even though I was not 6 feet away from many people getting tested, nor was I avoiding strangers. The suit does get very hot though! 

As a nurse, what is your opinion on the short- and long-term path of this pandemic? What steps will we need to take now and in the future to get back to “normal” … if that’s even possible?

So, it’s really hard to determine that question, since everything is so uncertain at this time. In the short term, I think the heavily infected states will have to remain in lockdown and social distancing, while the local governments work on protocols to start opening up the economy. I believe that in the long term, this will prompt a healthcare reform and start the government to come up with a pandemic response team, in case something like this ever happens again. I do not think things will go back to normal, until a vaccine comes out or cases decrease dramatically. Without social distancing, cases are going to continue to rise and the lockdown is going to continue to last longer and longer. The problem with this virus is that 80 percent or more of cases are either mild or asymptomatic, however, it is highly contagious and virulent, and so an individual who is immunocompromised or has multiple comorbidities, can get it from an asymptomatic carrier, and may experience severe or even fatal symptoms. Unfortunately, there is a high mortality rate if mechanical ventilation is required, while infected with COVID. Hopefully, by the summer, restrictions start to ease up and we can start to enjoy a “somewhat” normal life again.

How do you envision this pandemic affecting colleges and universities in the short- and long-term – academically and athletically?

I think it is going to be tough to open colleges and universities back up, especially since underclassmen dorms are generally tightly packed with multiple roommates in 1-2 rooms. And there are generally 1-2 dining areas, which are also communal, limiting the ability to social distance. Sports that require close contact will also be difficult to reopen. Classes could be moved to online, however, some students do much better with an in-person class, and other classes require a hands-on experience. Nursing is a great example of that. Hopefully, universities can find a solution to all of these issues. I’m sure a lot of schools with switch to online learning, which is great, but that will still hinder the ability of athletes to compete and it will limit the college experience. Living on campus is part of the experience, and it is something that you never experience again.  Hopefully, a solution is thought of or the social distancing and restrictions work so we can all get back to a normal life come the fall semester.

As you know, our senior class was robbed of their final season (outdoor track) as well as their final few months as college student-athletes. What message or thoughts can you send to them?

I would like to say to them that I am very sorry for part of their college experience to be robbed from them.  The last semester of your senior year of college is an experience that most people look back in fondness of and so many memories are created then. That must be very tough, sad and frustrating to deal with, especially since all of this escalated extremely quickly. So many people are losing out on extremely big life events (weddings, visiting newborn grandchildren, prom, sporting events, graduations, birthdays, etc.) and even though this is extremely frustrating, and everything about this situation is uncertain, just remember that you sacrificing part of your senior year, to social distance from your friends and teammates, probably saved somebody’s life. You will still get to look back at your time at Marist and think these were some of the best times of your life and some of the best friends you’ve ever had, and the virus can’t take that away from you.