CINCINNATI —

Registered nurse Beth Day is known for her tireless work and commitment to helping others.

Taking on long hours and extended shifts amid the worst months of the pandemic, she loves what she does, never expecting to be thanked, in such a big way.

"I'm very grateful to be able to do this, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for most people," Day said.

Day and three other TriHealth nurses are headed to the 2021 Super Bowl.

They're just four of nearly 7,500 vaccinated front-line health care workers that'll attend the big game with free tickets and game day experiences directly from the NFL.

"I've been to a couple of Bengals games but nothing that was of any significance like the Super Bowl," Day said.

Nurse Manager Stephanie Long helped select Day for this major opportunity. She'll be representing TriHealth's Good Sam hospital at Evendale.

"I've worked with Beth for 10 years, she always has a positive attitude, always willing to do anything you need her to do," Long said. "With all the COVID chaos she was willing to go anywhere that was needed."

Soon she'll be off to Tampa, rooting on her team of choice.

"The Chiefs, all the way!" Day said.

Knowing her efforts to keep people safe played a small part in making a game like this one, even possible.

April Kapu is president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She says some of her exhausted members are now ready to quit. 

"Today we're seeing the nurses go back in and say, 'Oh my goodness, I thought this was over. I thought I was in the recovery phase,' and we're still in it," she said. 

Sophia Morris, vice president of account management at Aya Healthcare, said, "We're seeing a high level of burnout; hospitals are seeing their highest vacancy rate in several years."

Kapu said, "We're hearing nurses say, and nurse practitioners say, 'I can't do it again,' and so they leave for different types of jobs – some leave the profession entirely."

Kapu says RNs and nurse practitioners were already dealing with coworker shortages pre-pandemic. That meant unwanted overtime. Then the vaccines rolled out — and so did the skeptics. Some of those people flooding hospitals are now asking for the vaccine, but in many cases are too late.

"Being a critical care NP, I can handle a lot, but this has just been overwhelming," said Kapu.

The shortage of health care workers isn't isolated to hospitals. Some nursing home facilities across the country say they're also feeling the pinch, but for a different reason: workers with COVID, and some unwilling to get vaccinated.

Joseph Brown is the executive director of Savannah Court of the Palm Beaches. He said, "It's a selfish attitude to take, so I think it's more education and more dedication in the right direction." 

According to AARP, as of late June, nationally about 78% of nursing home residents have gotten a shot and are considered fully vaccinated. But only 56% of the health care staff can say the same.  

Nursing home operators want staff to get the shots, but some are worried that requiring workers to do that will end up with them quitting in an already tight job market. 

Mary Daniel's husband lives in a Florida care facility. She said: "They care about the elderly; they care about the disabled. And if that is truly the case, then to work in this environment – in an inpatient facility where there are residents – then you have to be vaccinated."

Kapu says the good news is that out of the association’s 325,000 members, 94% are vaccinated, and she says boosting the numbers could be as simple as talking to someone.

"So what we really need is to bring in more counseling, more ears to listen, so that we can bring our very best selves to the patients that are there right now," Kapu said.

This story was originally reported by Tammy Estwick on Newsy.com

TAMPA, Fla. — Tracie Wiechmann has taken every precaution during the pandemic, especially for her adult son, Christopher.

She said though the whole family got vaccinated, they aren’t sure how much protection he has since he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

“For him, we don’t know how protected he is, he’s in a medically fragile state,” Wiechmann said.

She said when the pandemic started, Christopher stayed home from work and they stopped visits from caregivers to reduce risk. But once he was vaccinated, they decided to see a doctor for back pain.

“We were in for a bit of a rude awakening when we went because we kind of had that assumption that healthcare providers would certainly be vaccinated and we discovered that wasn’t the case,” Wiechmann said.

Wiechmann said she learned some staff were not vaccinated and later learned a wheelchair technician and respiratory therapist who arrived for home visits weren’t either.

“I spoke to a lot of people after our experience and they were all shocked and I would say 99% of the people I talked to assumed healthcare workers were vaccinated because they had access to it before the rest of us did,” Wiechmann said. “And I just want people to know if you’re in that situation and you do have a compromised immune system — before you go anywhere, you call and you ask those questions before you go anywhere.”

According to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, as of June 4, 58.2% of current hospital staff in the state have received the vaccine. The information is self-reported by health facilities.

“It’s not going very well overall pending on the location," said Jay Wolfson, a senior associate vice president at the Morsani College of Medicine. "Some large healthcare institutions have had 70-80% success in getting at least one shot some cases two, others are sometimes lower than 20%. The highest risk place appears to be long-term care facilities.”

Wolfson said mandating vaccines is a tricky issue since none of the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved beyond an emergency use authorization.

“In Florida, you cannot mandate it yet though the employment lawyers and the occupational safety health administration are indicating that you can," Wolfson said. "A very recent — just this past week — federal court in Texas for the Methodist Hospital in Houston said that the hospital may mandate that its employees get vaccinated even without the final approval by the FDA beyond the EUA. So this is a very significant decision by a federal court."

Johns Hopkins Medicine, which includes Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, announced it would require clinical and nonclinical personnel to be fully vaccinated by September.

Other hospital systems in the Tampa area are not requiring vaccinations, but encouraging it for all employees.

Daycare said it’s not requiring the vaccine but highly encourages it for team members and community members eligible to receive it.

“The Delta variant is just one more reason people should get vaccinated. To reduce risk of exposure, masks are required inside all of our hospitals and patient care areas,” a Daycare spokesperson said.

HCA Healthcare said they strongly encourage it, but don’t require it.

“While in our hospitals, our employees are masked, regardless of vaccine status. We have provided 23,900 COVID-19 vaccines to date, which includes vaccinations provided to our caregivers and the community,” an HCA spokesperson said.

AdventHealth said while the vaccine is not currently required, they strongly encourage their team members to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

A spokesperson for Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System said approximately 70% of their employees and more than 90% of their physicians and medical staff members have been vaccinated.

“We want everyone to get vaccinated, but at this time we are not mandating the shot, primarily because the vaccines are currently approved by the FDA for emergency use only. We continually monitor the data, expert guidance and regulatory changes, and like most hospitals will re-evaluate vaccination requirements in the weeks ahead, especially once the vaccines receive full FDA approval,” the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, Wiechmann is hoping to see more shots in arms and people help protect those who are vulnerable.

“Just have some compassion, if you could — wear a mask if you’re not vaccinated, just to protect other people,” she said.

According to the Florida Department of Health’s weekly COVID-19 report, 55% of Floridians are vaccinated.

A USF statewide survey showed of adults who haven’t been vaccinated more than 35% said they will "probably not" or "definitely not" get vaccinated, while nearly a quarter are still undecided.

This story was originally published by Haley Bull on Scripps station WFTS in Tampa, Florida.

FORT THOMAS, Ky. —

Players from the University of Kentucky men's basketball team and Coach John Calipari stopped at a local hospital on Saturday, expressing gratitude for health care workers.

The Wildcats made at stop at St. Elizabeth in Fort Thomas, signing autographs and taking photos with the care team.

Coach Calipari said it was all about paying respect to frontline heroes and their work over the past year. "How they did their jobs, they have their own families, they put everything on pause to go do this," Calipari said.

"I told all the nurses, just I'm amazed and I'm respectful and thankful that they did what they did," Calipari added.

The visit was also a big teaching moment for the team. Coach Cal said he wanted to show the players how much their kindness can impact others.

"For us, we haven't traveled, we haven't been out in this community. I want the players to feel the love and that it means something to people throughout this state to be on this team," Calipari said.

Coach Cal said the team will be making trips throughout the state to show their gratitude for the community and Wildcats fans.