You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

The coronavirus has disrupted all of our lives, and that's especially true for healthcare

workers.

Nurses, and tax and doctors, and hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, they were some of the

first to see how bad it could really get.

Like Jamila Goldsmith, an emergency room physician in Georgia.

I remember reading the stories about what was taking place in Italy, and I was scared

to death to be perfectly honest.

It'll be a year ago next week that the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus

outbreak a pandemic.

Days later, a national emergency was declared here in the U.S.

For Mariah Clark, an EMT, an emergency nurse in Wisconsin, it was a year where everything

was upended.

It felt like you were on a slippery muddy hill, and you could see how steep and how far

that hill was, and how many rocks, and you could see the precipice at the bottom, and

you couldn't stop sliding.

So today in the show, two emergency room healthcare workers reflect on what this last year

has been like for them, and just how much has changed in their work and lives.

I'm Maddie Safaya, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Today we're handing over the show to two emergency room healthcare workers.

Jamila Goldsmith, an emergency room physician in Georgia, who found out she was pregnant

last fall.

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