HENDERSON (KTNV) — As the world reflects on the pandemic that reshaped lives, healthcare workers who stood on the frontlines during the earliest and most uncertain days of COVID-19 are also looking back on the fear, the resilience, and the lessons learned.
At Siena Hospital, Gevie Hall, a nurse manager, remembers those days all too well. The unit she managed, once a general medical floor, transformed overnight into an emergency COVID-19 ward.
Hear how Hall remembers working during the pandemic here.
Adding to the pressure, Hall had just been promoted when the virus hit, leaving her to guide a team of nurses through unprecedented challenges.
“My nurses got really good at taking care of COVID patients, but the downside was, when COVID lifted, it was like training all over again,” she recalled.
The hospital, like many others across the country, grappled with staffing shortages, exhaustion, and fear of the unknown. But beyond the medical challenges, Hall says one of the hardest parts was losing a basic but essential human connection: the ability to see each other’s faces.
“All I could see were their eyeballs. I could only recognize my nurses based on their eyes,” she said.
The stress of the pandemic followed her home, forcing her to take extra precautions to protect her family.
“I would call my husband on the way home so he could keep the kids away. I’d get undressed in the laundry room, jump in the shower, and have fresh clothes waiting. Some nights, if I knew I had been exposed, I slept on the couch,” she shared.
For years, her unit was in a constant battle against COVID-19. But then, one day, everything changed.
“We took a picture of our board. It used to be covered in red boxes marking COVID patients. Then one day, I walked in and saw nothing. No red boxes. I said, ‘Is that real? We don’t have a COVID patient today?’”
That moment marked a turning point—not just for Hall and her team, but for healthcare workers everywhere.
Now, five years later, Hall reflects not only on the pain and loss of the pandemic but on the strength and perseverance it revealed.
“I never asked for leadership, but I always said, ‘If there’s somebody that needs help, I can do it.’ Now, I get to watch new nurses grow—from 21-year-olds touching their first patient to veterans retiring. It’s the funniest thing I've done just to live through these people.”
Though the world has moved forward, Hall says the impact of COVID-19 will always stay with her.
“It forever changed healthcare. And it forever changed me.”
COVID-19 Five Years Later, Channel 13 is bringing you special coverage all day Monday as we explore the lasting impacts and lessons learned.
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