Disasters and pandemics create extreme stress for long-term care employees, given their responsibility to ensure the health and safety of residents in their care. The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat in long-term care because of its highly infectious nature, the vulnerability of those with pre-existing chronic conditions, and its long duration. The disease threatened both residents and staff. However, staff had to balance fears for their own safety, and their families’, while also providing hands-on care amid burdensome and continually evolving infection control measures such as masking, symptom screening, and separation of residents. The anxiety and exhaustion caused great numbers of aides and nurses to leave their long-term care jobs, compounding the workload for the remaining staff and accelerating the use of contract staff. Even after the pandemic abated, long-term care homes reported staffing below pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic worsened long-standing hiring and retention deficits, however, it also called attention to evidence-based staffing remedies. This chapter explores the catastrophic effect of the pandemic on care homes worldwide, focusing on why long-term care staff left their jobs, why many stayed, and lessons learned about how to improve staffing to promote the health and safety of long-term care residents.