One year after the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline healthcare workers continue to experience and reflect on the immense impact it's had on their profession and their lives. 

Dr. Cynda Rushton of Johns Hopkins University said reports show two-thirds of the 4,000,000 nurses nationwide are considering leaving the field.

"I think it's very troubling," Rushton said. "Nurses at the frontlines have really born a very substantial burden in this pandemic that has really, I think, pushed them beyond their capacity to adapt in many situations."

She said it's not clear how severely this could affect the field of nursing but suspects it will be unlike anything many have ever experienced. 

"One thing that's different about this particular situation is that often when we have a crisis, it's pretty time-limited," she said. "This crisis has gone on now for over a year. As a result of that, we don't have exact parallels. It's not like 9/11, it's not like a hurricane or a natural disaster."

Rushton says there are many factors of the pandemic that are deeply affecting nurses and predicts this will create an increased shortage in the field. 

One major factor: The emotional toll on nurses from the record high COVID-19 death rate. 

"Over 500,000 people have died in this country. That volume of death is not normal for nurses, so there's this huge burden of grief that they also carry," Rushton said. "Nurses have taken on a kind of an emotional surrogacy role in addition to everything else they're doing to try to create an end of life process that is dignified and that really honors that person."

Jerome Lynch, a Mercy Health Youngstown nurse working on the front lines since the beginning, said the hardest part emotionally is saying goodbye to patients without their loved ones by their side in their final moment.

"You just try and comfort them," Lynch said. "You just let them know you're not alone. You're with them. We're in this together."

With a tear in his eye, he said before their last breath, patients will smile at him and hold his hand. 

"Whatever it takes," he said. 

Nurses are there for so many, and now, Rushton said nurses need us to be there for them.

"It is time for the public, for the government, for organizations, to really invest in and honor nurses' contributions. They are largely overlooked," she said. "The question that every person ought to be asking themselves is, 'Who is going to care if I need nursing care in the future?' And if that doesn't give you pause, it should because nurses are the backbone of this healthcare system, and it is unsustainable without a healthy nurse force."

She says one silver lining is that "the thing COVID has done is it has brought nursing out of the shadows into the light."

Lynch said if he could go back before the coronavirus pandemic, he'd do it again.

"It's in my blood. I wouldn't have made a different choice. I'd do it all over again."

Click here to listen to the full in-depth conversation with Dr. Rushton on what she believes needs to be done moving forward, and the many other factors of the pandemic impacting nurses. She also discusses how this could impact all people in the years to come with a shortage in the field.