When a patient is admitted to a hospital to be treated for COVID-19, one of the first healthcare professionals they will probably see is a respiratory therapist. If the patient is sick enough to be admitted with the disease, he or she is likely having trouble breathing and it's a respiratory therapist's job to insert the tube that connects them to a ventilator. That can be frightening. "You can see it in their face and in their eyes," said Nicole Smallwood, a respiratory therapist at UR Medicine