2 AM PROVIDENCE
Rhode Island Hospital
An emergency code blares over the intercom at Rhode Island Hospital, shattering the night. A brief flurry of activity follows before the floor returns to silence. Unlike some other departments, the hospital’ s cardiothoracic intensive care unit maintains a mostly peaceful calm through the night hours, with staff holding vigil at the nurse’ s station and occasionally ducking into a room to check on a patient. Donna Dumouchel has served as nursing supervisor since 2019, overseeing nurses on the night shift at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’ s.“ Nights can be very active, but it’ s a different activity,” she says.
“ You’ re dealing with less resources, so we’ re making sure the resources are where they need to be.” Some nights are harder than others. Dumouchel remembers being on the day shift in 2003 when she was called in late to assist with patients in the aftermath of the Station nightclub fire.
“ It was amazing to see everybody come together and do their job,” she says. More recently, she was at home in Smithfield preparing to head in for her twelve-hour shift when she learned of the mass shooting at Brown University. With hospital staff uncertain how many patients would arrive, Dumouchel and others worked to empty beds in the trauma intensive care unit to make room for incoming victims.“ It’ s all hands on deck at that point,” she says.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026 87