It’s been more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and nurses and doctors are still on the front lines. They’re battling the virus and administering vaccines — all while doing what they can to keep themselves safe.

So it goes without saying that the past year has been challenging. 

Nick Russo knows first-hand the struggle dealing with the virus at Oak Hill Hospital and at home.

Like many nurses around the world, he felt the pressure when the pandemic gave us a new definition of normal.

“I think part of the challenge is we see COVID hit, and we don’t really know what somebody’s gonna get,” he said. "They could get nothing, and they could get everything. And of course when they get to the ICU, they’re the sickest.”

Long hours turned longer, but throughout the pandemic, he tried to remain positive — even with a smile hidden behind his mask — because that’s what nurses do.

He kept his positive mindset even when the virus hit him, his wife and their daughter.

“I had the high fever,” he recalled. "I was getting some respiratory symptoms. Two days later, it hit her and she realized when she couldn’t move how bad [it was]. And then my daughter got it.”

Russo told Spectrum Bay News 9 he’s thankful his 81-year-old mother managed to avoid contracting COVID.

“Life is fragile, and I’m sure you have talked to people in the community where they thought that COVID isn’t a real thing or isn’t as bad as we think it is. And I just say, just come walk in my steps for just an hour, and you’ll find out that — yeah, it’s a real thing, and we really need to be prepared.”

The need for more nurses is a worldwide issue. 

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is using its resources to address the shortage and find ways to fix it.

National Nurses Week began on Thursday and continues through May 12.