17 slides Emergency medical medical officer Dr. Storm Bissict, 35, photographed outside the ER entrance of Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, on the morning of January 19. To escape the stresses of her job during a pandemic, she dives into the ocean. Credit: Charlie Shoemaker for NPR PHOTOS: How 9 Health Workers Stay Strong In A Pandemic Year By at 7:13 am NPR To be a health care worker in the best of times includes days of stress, sorrow, frustration, triumph, joy and reflection â not always in that order. This past year was all of that on warp speed, as the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.