Sister Peggy Dolan (Maura Thomas) admits that she used to be a nervous person. She says it's ironic that, as a social worker at Boston Medical Center, her job comes with a panic button. "Thirty years ago, I'd never have seen myself doing this work," she says. "If you're nervous, it's not the place to be."

Sister Peggy is the first point of contact for people who are homeless, depressed, angry, addicted, etc., who are looking for help. "A lot of people come in feeling that no one has ever tried to help them," she says. "If you can calm them down in the beginning and say, I can do this or that for you, they feel you've heard them, that they've found an ally."

As part of the Psychiatry Department, Sister Peggy helps patients set up appointments for therapy and medications. She also follows through with some patients for mental health therapy.

"People come in to us with every conceivable problem going. They have electric bills or gas bills in the thousands of dollars and no money to pay them," she says. "I don't think people realize the extent of the problems we deal with just within the city of Boston. It's draining work."

Sister Peggy says she often came home from work exhausted. "Some days you don't get a minute to breathe," she says. "I say to myself, 'I've heard it all now' until the next person comes in with a totally different horror story."

Sister Peggy was a schoolteacher for many years before she found herself in social work. In the late 1980s, she knew she was being called to do something else. "I went to work in a women's substance abuse treatment facility until it closed down from lack of funding," she says. She went back to school in 1991 to earn a master's degree in social work from Boston College. She's been a social worker ever since.

Sister Peggy says she's ended up doing things she never thought she'd be able to do, because of the support she receives from her community. "People saying, 'yes you can do it, we have faith in you,'" she says. "Even if people don't say it, you know that people are connected with you, to help you do what you're doing."

As for the panic button under her desk, Sister Peggy is happy to say that she's never had to use it.

Along with Sister Peggy, her colleague, Sister Mary Ellen Loar (Robert Bernadette), also served as a social worker at Boston Medical Center (formerly Boston City Hospital). Sister Mary Ellen loved her ministry with babies and children. Sister Peggy and Sister Mary Ellen brought the joy of God's love to those whom they served and those with whom they worked.