At the beginning of the Pandemic, I read accounts of what was happening behind the smooth swoosh of hospital doors. What I read wasn’t from mainstream media. Nurses were posting. Social media had connected me with many of my former colleagues and now became a place for some to tell their stories. They wrote of meager supplies of PPE, grueling hours, and the worst shift of their lives every time they clocked in.

I’ve been a critical care nurse for most of my career, and though I've been in education for the last six years, I hadn’t forgotten. When I read the posts, I could easily imagine that gnawing feeling a nurse gets when she’s had an exposure that could result in an infection. She wonders how much sick time she has, if she might infect her family, and if she'll die one of the gnarly deaths that she's been witnessing all too often and in excruciating detail.

Now, almost two years into this hell and with the numbers climbing, I don’t see many posts, but I think of those nurses. How might they be supported? Besides being a nurse, I am a writer. Many of my stories are based on those incidences that have stuck with me. It’s an established belief that expressing oneself and having those who understand bear witness has incredible health benefits. The Nurses Writing Circle is a place to come together as nurses to give voice to our stories.