The respect is gone. The appreciation is gone. The understanding and patience is gone.

The “thank you so much for working through this” has been replaced by “this is ridiculous”.

Understandably the frustration felt by patients and their relatives is at an all time high. The annoyed eye rolls and huffy sighs when you tell them “it shouldn’t be much longer,” “we are doing the best that we can” are really starting to chip away at our morale.

The free coffee and meals are a thing of the past. Not sure when I last heard a “Thank You.”

The hotel lights in the shape of hearts aren’t on anymore.

The neighbors that waved us off to work and told us to “stay safe” have gone back inside.

And the local news is back to pointing out our short comings even though the number of patients that we care for has doubled.

We are still here. We are still fighting. We are working harder than we ever have.

We are exhausted.

We are frustrated.

We cannot sleep because we cannot forget all that we’ve seen.

We are frightened because we may take this home to our Minions and our family.

We are so emotionally and physically drained.

We are skipping breaks and eating whatever is handy just to keep us going.

We are a service that keeps on serving.....compassion, care and sometimes a simple hand to hold on to.

We are going in early and coming home late.

We are working too many double shifts.

We are missing time with our families.

We will never be the same.

We are doing THE. BEST. THAT. WE. CAN.

We aren’t “healthcare heroes” anymore. We have become slaves to this pandemic, and it is really exhausting.