Throughout the pandemic, faculty, staff, and students at Boston University’s School of Medicine rushed to the front lines, most notably at Boston Medical Center (BMC), a teaching hospital for the School of Medicine that treats some of the city’s most vulnerable populations. Hundreds of BU’s healthcare workers came off their shifts emotionally and physically drained, bearing witness to pain and heartbreak, as well as moments of inspiration and hope.

Take Dr. Thea James, School of Medicine associate professor of emergency medicine, vice president of mission, and associate chief medical officer at BMC. She recalls thinking during her first shift under the surge that “as a provider, this is like swimming in water and trying not to get wet.” But James says her mission never faltered and remains the same today as it was before March 2020, “because they are the same patients with the same life risks we have been committed to partnering with pre-pandemic, for decades.”

Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, a School of Medicine clinical associate professor of family medicine and BMC vice chair of primary care innovation and transformation, says that despite her years of experience, so much was unknown in the beginning and she grappled with panic—for example, fearing that she wasn’t donning her PPE correctly and might inadvertently get others or herself sick. “But I also felt incredibly grateful,” she says. “Grateful that I could serve in some way that was helpful, grateful for my colleagues at BMC, grateful for this incredible patient population who teaches me every day.”

Then there was Dr. Joshua Barocas, a BMC infectious diseases physician and School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine. He says that during the height of the pandemic, the range of emotions could be dizzying, from pride to sadness, from energized to lonely, from overwhelmed to tranquil. “I am extremely proud to have worked on the front lines. Outside of being a loving parent and spouse, it is the proudest I have been in my entire life. And while I missed terribly seeing my family and tucking my children in at night, I found solace in the fact that I was helping my community and doing something that my children and wife were proud of.”