[Nurse] One of the things that the public should know is
at a time when everybody else is running away from this
healthcare workers are running towards it to fight it.
And I do call it a war.
You still have two lungs on the board for tomorrow as well.
[Reporter] A registered nurse for over 30 years
Denise Morris leads one of the three intensive care units
here inside Toronto General Hospital.
It's 7:30 in the morning and her 12-hour shift is ending.
We did unfortunately have a death
and that's always hard on the team.
[Reporter] The last face some patients see isn't a family member.
It's their doctor, nurse or a spiritual care fellow.
This for me has been --
Surrogate family.
Everyone is surrogate family
[Reporter] The patient did have a family member nearby
but now others have arrived.
Yeah many lives are being saved
but every life lost leaves its mark.
[Denise] Unfortunately and I think that takes a toll on everyone's soul.
[Reporter] As Morris ends her day
respiratory therapist Ruan Sale is starting hers.
[Ruan] There's multiple steps in order to protect yourself
and if you miss a step or you touch your face before you wash your hands
there's that risk or that fear of getting COVID.
Our hands are dry.
My hands hurt every single day I'm at work.
It's just it's non-stop.
It's just you're going from room to room to room
and doing the same process every single room.
[Reporter] Sale is now accustomed to systematically putting on
and taking off personal protective equipment.
That fear has largely been replaced by the strain of treating a tide of patients.
[Reporter] No hospital understands the strain of this pandemic
better than Sunnybrook Health Sciences.
One year ago workers here cared for Canada's first patient.
[Nurse] This is the COVID unit.
Majority of the nurses are already in their rooms
caring for their patients.
So today we are up to 15 ventilated patients.
[Reporter] Victoria Boateng is a critical care nurse.
[Victoria] Every SCU is short staffed at the moment.
And we have multiple patients that are sitting in emergency
as well as on other units.
[Reporter] Boatang is part of a rapid response team.
As ICUs fill up, patients in need of life-saving care are ending up in other parts of the hospital.
[Victoria] And I don't think the public always understands that.
It's like the proverb 'it takes a village to take care of a child'
and it sort of feels like us as the health care providers are the village
that's taking care of everyone's loved ones.
[Reporter] And that village is exhausted.
[Victoria] It's really concerning about the rate of burnout that is going around right now
with healthcare providers.
We're really hoping that we can
get through this and come out on top.
[Reporter] Like in war most people never see the front line where battles are being won
and lost every day.
Christine Birak, CBC News, Toronto.