When the World Health Organisation designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife last year, there was no knowing that these roles would be thrust into the spotlight due to a global pandemic.
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WHO wanted to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, and spark a year-long effort to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, highlight the challenging conditions they faced and advocate for greater investment in their workforce.
These dedicated health workers have been called upon throughout history to care for the community through any number of crises, through natural disasters - and epidemics and pandemics.
And this year - the year dedicated to their profession - they have faced all of them head on.
For Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District executive director of nursing and midwifery Deborah Cameron, 2020 has proved the most challenging in her 40-year career.
"We've been through pandemics and epidemics before - we've worked through the SARS crisis, dealt with influenza outbreaks and more," she said.
"Yet for the past six months there's been no respite from crisis - from the unprecedented bushfires where we had to maintain clinical services and high quality care; we rolled straight into a short and sharp period of floods and then straight into a pandemic.
"So there's been a long and continual adaption of how we provide care."
According to WHO, the world needs nine million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. For Ms Cameron, it's not just about the quantity - but the quality - of staff that is vital.
"What's been highlighted during this pandemic is the need to look at how we classify and skill up nurses," she said.
"As part of our response we've worked hard to skill up our nurses to support our specialty intensive care nurses to run an expanded number of ICU beds for COVID patients if and when necessary."
Ms Cameron, a registered nurse and midwife, has seen how the profession has changed over the decades. Her mother Helene Rogers is a registered nurse who worked for years in the Sperry Street methadone unit, her daughter Lauren Henderson is a registered nurse in Wollongong's neonatal unit.
"My mother and I both trained at Concord Hospital, while my daughter trained at university," she said. "While much has changed - in the training, in the practice, in the community - much has stayed the same.
"Most of us became nurses or midwives in order to provide compassionate, quality care to the patients and the families who put their trust in us. And whatever challenges we face, we'll continue to do that."
