TAMPA, Fla. — We’ve heard the stories about the bravery health care workers show on a daily basis throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

But there’s a group of employees working in hospitals who are often forgotten — environmental service aides responsible for keeping hospitals like Tampa General Hospital clean and sanitized. 

In fact, TGH has more than 280 environmental service aides who work around the clock to keep the facility clean. 

Environmental services director Glenda Wright said the hospital’s training fully prepared the group for an infectious disease but they still had to adjust to the idea of a pandemic.

In light of that, Wright said she and her staff are checking in on their environmental service aides to make sure they’re OK.

“It’s not a quick in and out,” Wright said. “It gets hot, it’s a physical strain on the body to have to go into these rooms and keep the right mindset and not rush, slow down, be detail oriented, so they really put a great effort forward.”

Wright said the only things the environmental services really had to change for COVID-19 were social distancing and constantly wearing PPE while they’re on hospital property. 

“The blessing in my management of this team is they do it for themselves and they do it for the patients. That makes it really easy," she explained. "They kind of knew what they signed up for, but they wanted to be in an industry where they help people and there’s no better way for environmental services to help than getting the environment ready."

For more on this story, watch the video above.