three generations of women relax at home

America’s Filipino nurses remain resilient pillars at home and abroad despite pandemic

As the healthcare industry disperses COVID-19 vaccines across the nation, the largest group of immigrant nurses in the country forges ahead despite battles of their own.

Leane Bulaong, 51, arrives home early from her nursing shift so she can spend time with her two daughters, one of whom is a nurse visiting from Missouri. On Leane’s right is her youngest daughter, Jillian, 20. She is on her laptop for a virtual nursing class while her grandmother watches.

Three months ago, nurse Leane Bulaong walked slowly along corridors of metal frames and white curtains at the Baltimore Convention Center, which had been converted into a field hospital for COVID-19. Instead of wearing her usual nursing scrubs, she had donned a patient gown; a pair of non-skid socks; a pulse oximeter, measuring her blood oxygen saturation; and a nasal cannula delivering oxygen from a tank she pulled alongside.

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