New research into what community healthcare workers experienced in the early days of the pandemic has been released this morning - finding many answered 'a call of duty' to care for their patients, sometimes at the expense of being with their own families.
They went the 'extra mile' to care for their patients, often without access to proper PPE and with little in the way of tangible thanks.
Dr Eleanor Holroyd, Professor of Nursing at AUT is the lead author of the study - which had 3644 responses, and in-depth interviews with 22 community healthcare workers.
It's part of work by the CARUL Collective, which investigates how people in Aotearoa and in the UK have engaged with and experienced the social restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says there's five recommendations to safeguard community healthcare workers in future pandemics - including demystifying the heroism and self-sacrifices projected onto them.
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