Faith on the Frontlines

Clover Stewart has spent much of the last 14 months zipping up COVID-19 casualties in body bags. At times, she has felt like one of the many living casualties of the pandemic – frontline medical workers who, at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, have witnessed a lifetime’s worth of gruesome deaths in the course of a typical week.

One night in March 2020, amid the frenzied efforts of the medical staff, the grim sounds of patients gasping for air, and the acrid smell of disinfectant, Stewart’s job got very personal: she recognized one of the deceased as the receptionist she and her pregnant daughter recently spoke with at a doctor’s visit.

“I prayed for sanity,” said Stewart, who works in a critical care unit in Brooklyn, New York, and credits her faith for helping her to cope. That night, immersed in the presence of death and full of anxiety that she and her daughter may have contracted the virus, Stewart received a voicemail. A fellow Jehovah's Witness was making a special effort to check on congregants working in healthcare and to share an encouraging Bible verse.

“God was with me,” she said, as she reflected on the reassurance that God sees her tears.

In the year that has followed, maintaining a spiritual focus has enabled Stewart and other frontline medical workers in her religious community to battle through the mental and emotional toll of the pandemic.

“What healthcare workers are experiencing is akin to domestic combat,” according to Andrew J. Smith, Ph.D., director of the University of Utah Health Occupational Trauma Program at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute.

A study conducted by Smith’s group concluded that more than half of the doctors, nurses and emergency responders providing COVID-19 care could be at risk for one or more mental health problems—including acute traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety.

“The ‘new normal’ is much more stressful,” reported Andrew Peterson, RN, of Cleveland, Ohio.

“Nursing is always stressful, but now there’s constant stress, constant demand. When there’s not enough staff, the demand on each person becomes higher and the stress greater, while there’s still the expectation to provide the same top quality care. But there’s no release valve, so everyone is short-fused.”

Peterson formerly worked in the emergency room but now works in home health care, which has unique challenges. “In the hospital—especially in an ER—there’s environmental control that you don’t have in a private home. In a home, there may be family members or even children of the patient running around—and they may be sick.”

“My patient load has increased. Where I have to go and what I have to do have increased. I am training new people all the time.”

Peterson finds help to cope with the stress by keeping his spiritual routine, which includes regular study, videos and updates, virtual meetings and even virtual conventions. “I found the 2020 ‘Always Rejoice’ Convention program especially helpful,” he said. “It struck me as having a lot of good things specifically to help me.”

When he’s not caring for patients, he and his wife stay busy helping their congregation both in practical ways, like shopping, and by giving spiritual encouragement. “It keeps me grounded and focused,” he explained.

“We had a young friend who died of COVID early in the pandemic. It made me realize that we really are like a mist; anything could happen at any time.”

In providing comfort to others, he often turns to Psalms 94:17-19, which states, in part, “When anxieties overwhelmed me, you comforted and soothed me.”

He also encourages people to visit the free resources at www.JW.org. “Coming out of coffee shop, a woman thanked me for being a nurse. She said, ‘You have such a nice attitude.’ I showed her JW.org to help her keep a positive attitude too.”

For nurse practitioner Brandy German, such support and community helped her through her own struggle with COVID-19.

“I was able to take my focus off how bad I was feeling,” she said. “I didn’t feel alone anymore.”

German tested positive in late March 2020 after weeks of seeing patients with the hallmark symptoms at her clinic in Angola, Indiana. While she self-quarantined with a mild case, her husband soon developed severe COVID that would last months.

“I was pretty sure I gave him the virus,” German said. “I didn’t want him to know how scared I was. I felt very isolated.”

During that time, German joined virtual ministry groups almost every morning to write letters with positive Bible messages to community members. She also continued her regular schedule of meeting twice a week with her congregation online.

Although the fear in her severe COVID patients' eyes is etched into her memory, Rodas too finds peace in the Bible’s promise that God will end sickness and pain and even bring the dead back to life. “I imagine all those patients who died, resurrected in Paradise,” she said.

When Stewart is surrounded by death inside the frigid trailer where COVID's victims temporarily rest, she likewise recalls scriptures of comfort, peace, and hope. She never forgets to pray and be thankful for her family of faith.

“God is going to get me through this,” she said.

(For more information on gaining comfort through the scriptures, please see https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/peace-happiness/real-hope-future-bible-promises/)