Many healthcare workers fear retaliation by their employers if they speak publicly about their work situations. Those voices are important and need to be heard.
Healthcare workers are invited to share their stories with us–and we will share them, anonymously if desired, on our website, social media channels, and in traditional media.
Note that, unless otherwise indicated, the images with the stories are stock photos selected to represent the healthcare worker’s story. They are not, unless specified in the text, the actual healthcare worker telling the story.
As a social worker, I have always been involved in supporting and advocating for others. With the onset of COVID-19, I have now dedicated my professional time to providing temporary placement for older adults with the virus and I have seen first hand the devastation...
I’m terrified to bring Covid home to my elderly parents I live with. I ended up with Covid myself and infected my whole family. Tremendous guilt ensued, and I’m still terrified to come home. I feel like a leper, and that most people want to stay as far away from me as...
"Hey, you okay?" I have been asked this question more than any other in the past few months... by colleagues who understand when my only response is a terse laugh or a sarcastic quip. By friends from afar who have messaged me after seeing my local area make national...
"I remember one night. I was sitting with a COVID patient, and there was a little boy who had contracted the COVID virus. He had to be transported to another hospital and he didn't understand why his mother couldn't ride with him in the ambulance. He had a whole bunch...
This story originally appeared in the New York Times Op-Ed section on June 26, 2020. As I write this, I have just finished my ninth consecutive overnight shift as an emergency medicine physician here. At the end of each shift I go to an Airbnb, where I have been...
As an X-Ray Tech, I come face to face with COVID daily. I mean that in the most literal sense. We in the medical field are staring this pandemic in the eye on a daily basis. We put aside our fears, panic and our worries because if we freeze, if we give in to the panic...
I am a nurse heartbroken by the devastating effects of COVID-19. I am not on the frontlines. I have been plagued with the burden of helplessness. I have witnessed the distress of my healthcare heroes faced with indescribable situations. I have wanted to answer the...
I have no choice. I have 4 kids I must feed. I cannot refuse. They will say goodbye and hire someone else. I am an Environmental Services worker. In the beginning we were not given N95 masks--even if we were cleaning COVID positive rooms, after intubations, after...
Every room I go into, I don't know--was someone here who had COVID? We have to protect our families. I have two little kids at home. Sometimes I get home while they are already awake and they run to hug me right away. And I have to avoid them and run away from them to...
When COVID started my hours were cut at the same time staff were cut AND my job duties increased. I am now doing the job of three positions in half the time. Working in the insurance area, I have been very frustrated with the inaction of insurance companies to provide...
Im a home health caregiver. I go to clients' houses. It's very hard with the clients. You have to tell them wash your hands, sanitize your hands, do like this, do like that. It's very hard. And then when I come back from work, I need to clean everything, sanitize...
Since Covid-19, I have mostly been separated from my 9-year-old daughter, and this is the hardest part. For a while we tried isolating my shifts in time--I would work a bunch of days, then be off for a stretch of days, and she could stay with me toward the end of my...