For the last 18 months, workers across the medical field have been tried, tested and tried again through a global pandemic — which continues to push staffs across the country.
In a Tuesday morning ceremony at Bradford Heights Nursing & Rehab in Hopkinsville, those workers who have remained since the onset of COVID-19 were honored as “Enduring Heroes” — each employee earning an award for excellence.
Crystal Patterson, administrator and training official for the facility, stated 1-in-5 in the U.S. medical field have moved on to other careers since March 2020, with more than 14% of nursing home workers nationwide having left the industry since May 2020.
Those remaining, Patterson said, are heroes.
Patterson added that local workers overcame fears of COVID-19 and family pressures to maintain job excellence, and sometimes battled through their own contractions of the virus while on the front line of service.
Prior to a proclamation, Hopkinsville Mayor Wendell Lynch noted that the medical field comes more as a calling now, and less like a job.
Governor Andy Beshear also attended such a presentation within the organization at Jeffersontown Rehabilitation on Tuesday afternoon.
Lynch:
Patterson:
