At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of London was shut down. However, essential workers were still expected to go to work. These individuals were predominately nurses, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, and even some store associates.
Fernando Davila is a Registered Nurse who works in the ICU. He said that when the pandemic first hit, they did not know what to do or expect.
“The worry where going in your thinking I don’t have this but could today be the day,” he said was the biggest fear going to work. The constant fear of getting sick lingered.
But it was not so simple as once he left work, he was ok. The fear of bringing something home to his family was huge.
“It’s not just those persons, it’s their families as well because going to work is only half of my day… I have the stress from work that I have to make sure I don’t get it while at work by protecting myself but then I have to do the same when I come home ,” he said.
But it is not only the nurses who fear getting sick from the virus while on the job.
Cole Nicholson is a first-class firefighter with the city of London, and he said that he had anxiety at the start of the pandemic and was afraid of getting sick.
But he said that the anxiety has calmed down a little bit because “people still need the fire department; people still need emergency services. You can’t live in fear because then you just can’t do your job.”
Through this pandemic, we have been separated and brought together.
Kevin Culbertson is a District Chief with the London Fire Department and he said that he feels bad for other occupations who did not necessarily have as tight of a bond as the fire department before the pandemic.
He said, “we’ve already got that family reliance right here and we just continue to use that and its worked to our advantage to cope this way with whatever added stress everyone might be feeling.”
Frontline workers have taken on a huge responsibility and have risked their well-being for everyone else. Their mental health has been impacted but they continue to fight through it to do their jobs.
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