Catholic Nurse Leans on God for Support While Treating COVID-19 Patients

Tags: Currents Brooklyn, NY, Crux, Faith, Inspiration, National Nurses Week, Queens, NY

By Emily Drooby

Nurses have been called to the frontlines as the country continues the fight against COVID-19. They’re heroes, willing to risk everything to help people they don’t even know, but who is helping them?

For nurse Colleen Donovan, God is.

“I think my faith has gotten me through a lot of things in my life,” she told Currents News.

Donovan normally works in the OR at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Long Island, but like so many of her fellow nurses across the country, her job has changed with the pandemic. Now she’s helping in the intensive care units and taking care of COVID-19 patients.

“It was totally different, totally different, I was very scared,” said Colleen, who has been a nurse for 34 years.

She says her co-workers and her strong Catholic faith have helped her throughout this difficult time.

“I find great strength in prayer, I pray a lot,” she explained. “I don’t step out of bed in the morning without saying my prayers and thanking God for giving me another day.”

She’s not the only one who feels this way. Catholics across the country are leaning on their faith for strength during the outbreak.

According to a Pew Research Center poll, 27 percent of people say their faith has grown stronger during the outbreak.  Fordham University reports that among regular churchgoers, 68 percent saying their faith has helped them to get through the crisis.

Colleen has been a devout Catholic her whole life. She says at the hospital, she’s seen people’s faith grow firsthand. Many there have been taking part in daily prayer groups.

“A lot of people are praying and a lot of people have come back to their faith and they’re drawn to prayer, and finding great comfort in it,” she said. “After report we would all gather in the middle of the room and pray, and it just kind of calmed you. It just really gave you a good sense of calm and that we could do this, we could take care of it.”