EVERETT, Wash — Friday marked 500 days since coronavirus was first detected in America. Everett's Providence Medical Center was the nation's epicenter for the outbreak, treating the country's first known patient.
It has been an often brutal 17 months for nurses at the hospital.
"It's taken a toll, emotionally," said nurse Julie Bynum. "There's been a lot of death. I've seen a lot of death."
Kimball Conlon was on the frontlines in the Providence Medical Center Emergency Department when word first came that her hospital was the tip of the spear in the battle against coronavirus.
It's a battle she's still fighting.
"The fear of the unknown moved to, 'oh my God are we going to take this home to our families?'" she said. "It has been a year and a half of this and still counting."
The two are among the nurses who have now voted to strike over a contract they believe is unfair to nurses who have sacrificed so much.
"The stress is wearing us down," said Conlon. "It takes us longer to recover from events that normally we'd be able to process and set aside. I know I don't feel like I can be there enough for my patients and coworkers, sometimes."
According to union leaders, Providence's contract offer pays a "below market wage" and aims to take away sick leave from nurses.
This, at a time when there is a national nursing shortage and caregivers at Providence are burning out -- either leaving for better paying jobs -- or getting out of the profession all together.
That means departments are sometimes down three nurses on a single shift and patients don't get all the attention they need.
"Our patients deserve better," said Bynum, a 16 year nursing veteran. "They deserve good people to take care of them."
A Providence spokesman said the hospital is "proud" of its new wage and benefit proposals, and that a strike would "represent a step backward" in negotiations, and undermine the momentum made so far.
For the nurses, though, it comes down to simply feeling appreciated after more than a year of giving so much of themselves to the job they love.
"Who takes care of the caregivers who take care of the community?" asked Conlon.
"You have good people working here. You've already invested in them. Make it worth their time to stay," added Bynum.
A Providence spokesman said the hospital is "disappointed" with the strike vote, but will continue to bargain in good faith. The next round of talks is scheduled for June 17.