It's Friday. Again, we made it another week. And since last Friday, we've been watching

as you all have filled up our pandemic toolkit spreadsheet. It's full of solutions for staying

at home with kids or by yourself as it feels like everything is falling apart. And it's

helping me at least feel connected while we're distancing. But of course, not everyone

can stay home. This week, we got an email from a nurse named Mary. She works at a small

hospital in rural upstate New York. And things are changing there rapidly.

My 180-bed hospital in Central New York state has been mandated by the state to increase

its capacity by 50 percent to care for a number of patients, the magnitude of which we really

don't know. So my hospital looks like a ghost town. Actual floors are closed. Visitors

are prohibited. And for right now, it feels like primarily a fear of the unknown. I'm afraid

of getting into a situation where the halls are filled with people who can't get care

and the immense suffering that that would create.

Mary told us that pandemic toolkit you made, not so helpful for those of us still going

to work.

I'm looking forward to a show about the toolbox for the healthcare professional. I think in

that toolbox, instead of beautiful books to read and lovely recipes to cook while I'm

socially distancing, that toolbox is going to be full of personal protective equipment,

masks that I can use when I take care of a COVID-19 patient, gloves, unlimited supply

of gloves and gowns. I'd like to know how my nurse colleagues are managing through this

crisis, especially those nurses who are giving direct bedside care to critically ill patients.

Mary, we hear you and we want to know that too. So that's this week's assignment. If you

are an essential worker working in a hospital or a grocery store or keeping people's lights

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