As nurse Caitlin Meagher got ready for her final shift at Garnet Health Monday, she reflected on the praise she received just 18 months ago.

“We were treated like heroes,” she said. “I never, ever thought that I would be losing my job today.”

Meagher said she was one of about 300 employees, including 90 nurses, who were to be fired Monday for not receiving their vaccinations.

During an interview at her Wallkill home Monday morning, she said she is not a conspiracy theorist and neither are many of her co-workers who are losing their jobs in accordance with a state order that nearly all health care workers must be vaccinated.

Monday was the deadline for health care workers to either receive at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or leave their positions. Periodic testing instead of vaccination was not offered as an option.

Meagher said she might still get vaccinated, just on her own terms.

“I think it’s OK for some of us to say, ‘I want to wait a little bit.' So there is potential for a lot of us to get it in the future,” she said.

As Gov. Kathy Hochul plans for the state to lose up to 95,000 health care workers who refused the vaccine, she is considering several options to make up for possible worker shortages. Those options include recruitment of workers from other states and countries and medically trained National Guard members.

Meagher said Garnet had already been making staffing adjustments ahead of Monday’s vaccination deadline.

“We’re not going to be able to operate at full capacity,” Meagher said. “They’re already asking nurses that have previous emergency room experience, previous ICU experience, if they would be willing to switch to a different department.”

A Garnet Health spokesperson did not answer specific questions, stating only in an email Monday that the “overwhelming majority” of Garnet’s staff is vaccinated and the hospital is still “a premier health care resource in our community that people can always rely upon.”

A spokesperson for Montifiore St. Luke’s Cornwall also declined to respond to questions, saying the hospital will adapt as needed.

Experts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations worldwide have offered assurances about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. The CDC reports 400 million doses have been administered nationwide.

Meagher said she is not exactly sure what is next for her after her two and a half years at Garnet Health.

She has been considering becoming licensed to practice nursing in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, where currently, there are no vaccination mandates for health care workers.