New Oral History Captures Our Lady of the Lake’s COVID-19 Response

April 04, 2025

Partnership with LSU Preserves the Voices of Frontline Healthcare Workers

BATON ROUGE, La.– Our Lady of the Lake Health, part of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, in partnership with Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Manship School of Mass Communication and LSU Libraries, today released Under Pressure: A Louisiana Hospital’s COVID-19 Experience, an oral history project documenting the challenges, innovations and resilience of frontline staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The stories captured in this collection are a powerful reminder of what it meant to be a healthcare worker during the pandemic,” said Catherine O’Neal, MD, chief academic officer for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “We witnessed extraordinary courage, innovation and humanity. Preserving these experiences ensures we never forget those who stood strong when our community needed them most.”

Recorded in July and August 2024, this collection of interviews documents the experiences of team members who responded to the pandemic at Our Lady of the Lake. Their accounts provide insight into:

• Decision-making in a rapidly evolving crisis – How hospital leaders and frontline workers adapted to shifting guidelines, resource shortages and surging patient numbers.
• The realities of frontline care – What day-to-day life looked like inside the hospital, from emergency response to patient interactions.
• Emotional and psychological toll – How team members coped with the prolonged stress, uncertainty and loss of a protracted disaster. 
• Innovation under pressure – Creative solutions that emerged to expand testing, manage limited resources, and protect patients and staff.
• Lessons learned – Reflections on what worked, what did not and how these experiences should shape preparedness for future health crises.

Preserving History for Future Generations

The release of Under Pressure: A Louisiana Hospital’s COVID-19 Experience marks five years since the onset of the pandemic, ensuring that the lessons learned and experiences of frontline healthcare workers are preserved for the public, researchers and future generations.

This project features 13 individual and group interviews with healthcare professionals who played key roles in Our Lady of the Lake’s pandemic response.

To explore the oral history collection, visit ololrmc.com/stories-of-strength.