At its outset, 2020 was decreed the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife by the World Health Assembly. The intent was to mark the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale — the English social reformer who is considered the founder of modern nursing — by recognizing the vital role these practitioners play in providing health services.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic sent shock waves around the world. The year of celebration turned into the biggest challenge nursing had faced in decades.

Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, one of the busiest level-one trauma centers in the Chicago area, quickly adapted to the crisis. Now, 40 nurses from that institution have shared their stories about caring for patients in the early days of the spread of the coronavirus in a new book, “Through Our Eyes: Perceptions from One Hospital’s Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

The book was the idea of Lynn Hennessy, vice president and chief nursing officer at Advocate Christ.

“It was March of 2020 when we started to realize just what an impact the COVID virus could potentially have,” she said. “We got our first patient with COVID on March 14. We went into survival mode, shutting down units and redeploying staff. No one realized how devastating this would be.”

Plans were put on hold for International Nurses Week in May. The nearly 2,400 nurses at the hospital each were given a Caretaker journal in which to record their experiences. Several months later, the

nurses were asked to submit entries from their journals to create this book, and forty nurses responded.

Production of the resulting book was overseen by Kimberly O’Connor, Hennessy’s staff person for Operations and Special Projects. It is a large, coffee-table-size tome, with hundreds of pictures accompanying the narratives.

However, unlike the usual coffee table book, there is nothing casual about “Through Our Eyes.” Some of the titles of the entries include “We Are Not OK,” “Final Moments,” “Keep Hope,” and “Never Prouder.” It’s an intense, emotional reading experience, best taken in small doses, as it is easy to become overwhelmed by the experiences being shared. But it is worth the effort, to have a real understanding of what went on — and is still continuing — in hospitals treating patients with this virus.

The entry from Nick Nowak, a nurse in the Medical Intensive Critical Care Unit, is titled “Nurses on the Battle Lines,” employing a metaphor repeated by Hennessy and other nurses.

“Gearing up with N95 masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves was the new normal for any size of task. … We saw countless patients admitted with no past medical history, only to decline and need full life support. … We cried on the phone with patients’ family members as the virus took yet another healthy person from this world. This is COVID-19, and this is the battle. ... We have failed but then have overcome. We won’t quit or stop fighting for our patients,” Nowak wrote in April 2020.

A year later, Nowak is still with MICU, which received the first patient with COVID, and was turned into a COVID ICU. Although the number has decreased, there are still a significant number of these patients.

Nowak was studying to be a physician assistant, but switched to nursing after clinical experience in graduate school showed him how “awesome” critical care nurses could be. Despite his experiences with COVID, and times when he and the other nurses questioned why they were putting themselves through this, he remains unequivocally positive.

“I’ve only been a nurse for two years, so I did not see much pre-COVID experience. The collaboration of all the staff during the pandemic has been wonderful, we all pulled together,” Nowak said. “I absolutely love what I do; I love being a nurse. I determined I’m going to do this for these patients and their families, and that’s what I am doing.”

So as not to infect their families, Nowak and two other nurses rented an Airbnb for a while so they could isolate. He finds it frustrating that some people don’t take the virus seriously and refuse to follow the precautions, although he says he understands that those who have not experienced the severity of the virus and seen the deaths the nurses have seen may not understand the seriousness.

“There was, and still is, so much we don’t know about this virus. Reading this book will help people understand the effects that COVID can have. I hope they can see the importance of compassion no matter what your job is. It goes a long way, in any setting, to be an advocate for people,” Nowak said.

Maribeth O’Connell, a nurse who lives in Mount Greenwood, answered the call to work for a month assisting on a COVID unit. Her regular unit was Outpatient Radiology. She wrote two essays in the book, “Brown Paper Bags” and “In a League of Their Own.”

In the first, she discussed personal protective equipment and the procedures staff followed to prevent the spread of the virus from location to location. Noting the brown paper bags that the nurses used to store their N95 face masks in between patient visits, she wrote that these “ramparts of health care safety” wound up everywhere — taped to the walls and hanging from IV poles — causing O’Connell to laugh, “if just to prevent crying for a little while.”

In the second entry she praises the “warriors,” those nurses who managed the “initial chaos” to treat patients and to control the spread of the virus.

O’Connell, who has 35 years of nursing experience, said of her time on the COVID unit, “I worked through the AIDS epidemic, and I was never scared of contracting the disease the way I was scared of COVID. I wanted to see for myself how bad this was, and I am glad I went to that unit. It was bad, it was an educational experience for me, and I was inspired by the staff working directly with the patients.”

The stories were from spring and summer 2020, and now, almost a year later, Hennessey said, “I walked through the halls and I saw the fear in the staff’s eyes. Looking back, we ask ourselves, how did we do it? Could we ever do it again? But I know we would do it again if we had to.”

COVID-19 has taken a significant mental and emotional toll on the staff, and depression and anxiety are not uncommon. Some people are quitting the profession, causing Hennessy to wonder what the situation will be in five to 10 years.

The proceeds of the book will enhance the medical center’s Caregiver Research, Education, and Wellness initiatives, including allowing more staff to attend conferences and workshops.

Another goal is to expand wellness programs for staff. Some units already have “restoration” or “quiet” rooms featuring massage chairs where staff can go to decompress, and there are peer and spiritual support programs. Additional funding would allow more services and events.

The book is also a historical resource, recording the first-person narratives of these nurses, who were part of an important world event that shaped this point in time.

“Through Our Eyes” costs $40 and may be purchased at Bookie’s bookstore at 10324 S. Western Ave., or for cash at the Cashier’s Desk at Advocate Christ Medical Center, 4440 West 95th Street. It may be ordered online at http://donate.advocategiving.org/supportnurses.

The nurses interviewed about the book described the characteristics they saw in each other: compassion, nurturing, respect, altruism, resilience, and a sense of duty to serve the community. The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife has been extended into 2021. Hopefully, this year there will be a chance for recognition and celebration.

Carol Flynn is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.