6:35 a.m. — Arrive at work. I am a nurse on a designated COVID-19 unit at a large medical center. We are heading into our 8th week of caring for COVID patients. I get temperature scanned at the door, pick up my mask for the day, and head up to my unit. Today, I am not assigned to care for specific patients, but rather to act as a resource for other nurses by helping them with their protective equipment, bringing them supplies while they're stuck in patient rooms, and going into the room if they need a second set of hands. We normally don't have the budget to have extra nurses on hand like this, but our hospital has allowed us to do this since the beginning of the pandemic and the extra staff has been keeping us afloat (we've been utilizing staff from other areas of the hospital that are much emptier than usual due to cancellations of elective surgeries and planned admissions). I begin my day by wiping down every surface in sight.