Minnesota health care workers reflect on blessings while working Thanksgiving Day

[KARE/WCCO/KSTP, November 25, 2021] While many Minnesotans enjoy the comfort of family and friends this Thanksgiving, Dr. Jess Boland and nurse Mikayla Reimers are caring for people they barely know: sick patients inside our hospitals battling COVID and other critical illness and trauma.

“It still hurts to try everything we can do for someone and have them get worse regardless of that,” said Boland, a critical care physician at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

Boland is frank about the situation: It can feel demoralizing battling a pandemic that’s still persisting after 20 months. It’s stressful and challenging, she said, to establish boundaries between her personal and professional life.

But working on Thanksgiving Day, she still finds so much to be grateful for — her supportive co-workers, her family and her baby. And moments of gratitude people have shown her during challenging times.

KARE 11 News and KSTP News also reported on this story.