There's a good news/bad news situation to mark today's start of National Nurses Week.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the annual awards ceremony for nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital being either postponed or canceled altogether.

But nurses say there's been an increase in appreciation for health care workers in the form of food, cards and gift card donations from the community.

And starting this week, Butler Memorial Hospital will start performing elective surgeries again at a reduced level, according to Karen Allen, the vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at the hospital.

But Saturday also brings an end to the hospital's payroll protection program which paid nurses in closed or shrunken hospital units their full wages despite a reduced workload.

Nurses will be forced to use their vacation time to make up for lost wages or file for unemployment, according to Tammy May, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit and president of the Butler Local of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals that represents 400 staff nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.