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Baltimore’s school nurses redeployed for a pandemic battle

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May 7, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Kristi Lowman, a Baltimore County school nurse, works on her laptop on her dining room table as her dog Rosie keeps her company. Lowman has been helping the county health department by calling residents who tested positive for the coronavirus, explaining how to isolate themselves and assisting with the county's contact tracing efforts. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

BALTIMORE — When Maryland schools shut down in March, Lansdowne Elementary nurse Kristi Lowman reported for work instead to a Towson office building, where she sat at a long folding table and answered calls to Baltimore County's covid-19 hotline.

“I learned, honestly, the mental strain that it was putting on people,” said Lowman, who answered calls at the county’s Drumcastle Government Center for two weeks. “They just wanted someone to talk to.”