DAVENPORT, Iowa — Haley Bielenberg has been a nurse at Genesis East Medical Center in Davenport since she graduated college in May of 2020. She works in the cardiac stepdown unit, where she's been right since the pandemic started taking hold.
"There was a lot of uncertainty. There was a lot of, I guess, panic, and just a lot of worry at the time," says Bielenberg.
She handles a variety of patients, with each one battling something different. Still, it doesn't change her approach.
"When I come to work and I walk into a complete strangers room, it's the understanding that I'm here for you today, and I'm going to do my best for you and that's why I'm here," says Bielenberg.
Despite all the uncertainty present in health care when she started her career, she embraced it wholeheartedly.
"It was just jump in full force and take it on as the profession that we wanted it to be for ourselves," says Bielenberg.
For Bielenberg, being a nurse during the pandemic is all she's ever known. But for nursing veterans, they know there is nothing normal about the past two years, like Emily Maiers. She's been a nurse with Genesis for 10 years.
"I've spent my career in critical care and death was always a part of that but not to this degree," says Maiers, "And not to a healthy person two weeks ago that got sick with Covid and now is dying without any way to save them."
For Maiers, it's been hardest to watch the pandemic take a toll on her coworkers.
"We've lost a lot of good hospital staff and a lot of nursing, and that's been really hard through this," says Maiers, "And it's been hard to watch our peers get burnt out and leave after the two years of grueling work."
For both women, it's the support of coworkers and the community that has gotten them through.
"Somebody has to carry that morale and be that morale booster. At times I think that fluctuates from person to person," says Bielenberg.
It's not without some dips in public support. One instanced happened back in January at Genesis East's campus where a community member seeking a Covid test got physically aggressive with nursing staff.
"When it hit the first time it was a very, it felt very team oriented, you know, we're all in this together, the community was behind us," says Maiers, "We were all fresh and ready to take it on. And we got through it, and did the best we could. The second time around has been harder."
Genesis East Medical Center Chief Nursing Officer Joel Moore has been in the health care industry for 23 years. He says this is the hardest thing he's ever been through.
"We can leave here and take care of Covid patients and then we walk out and we see people being angry about people wearing masks or creating fierce arguments about vaccinations or even going to the full extreme that Covid isn't real," says Moore, "That's really hard when we are here and see and touch and have to take care of people who do have Covid."
As different strains come and go, Moore says he sees a bit of a disconnect between the communities feelings on where things stand and the devastation still playing out behind hospital walls they aren't seeing.
"In one day they had three people die in our Intensive Care Unit of 26 patients," says Moore, "That's more than the number of patients we have die, usually in a month."
Maiers feels the strain hasn't gone away. Instead the ability to power through the loss and devastation has gotten harder.
"At first it was easier to kind of tuck it in and not address it, but it definitely accumulates to the point of, hopefully not a breaking point, but it adds up. It's hard to understand what it's like in the hospital if you're not here doing it every day," says Maiers.
It's periods of low case counts that make all the difference for Maiers. Even still, she says there's a nagging feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"I think we're all still a little pessimistic that they could turn back quickly at any time with a new variant or strain," says Maiers, "But I personally am just taking it one day, one week at a time. Like I'm getting a little break this week and just enjoying it while I can."
All three of these health care workers continue to dedicate themselves to the community, working to care for the areas sickest. In return, Bielenberg says they ask for something simple in return.
"I think it's just important for people to understand that we are here for they. And if they can just be there for us as well their support is needed and is appreciated," says Bielenberg.