Nursing and health challenges after the pandemic

By Roberta Heale, EBN Deputy Editor, @robertaheale @EBNursingBMJ

The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife tested us like never before. Although the world was waiting for a pandemic and fears appeared (SARS, MERS, Ebola), here we have now Covid 19. Nurses world wide packed their Christmas banners and placed on masks and face shields. Some of us are working like never before, in dangerous and heartbreaking situations. Others maintain physical distance from our vulnerable patients and go to great lengths to look after them without the usage of appropriate assessments. Regardless of the situation, there isn’t a doubt that the nurses did what they at all times do, stepped in and did their job. I could not be more pleased with my fellow nurses and of being a nurse!

As much as nursing faces the challenge of COVID 19 in the complete public highlight, we may also face the results of those difficult times long after the cameras roll. Some predict 4 waves. We are actually in the primary wave… of immediate mortality and morbidity from Covid 19. However, there are still difficult days ahead. In subsequent waves, health systems will need to handle the dearth of resources for urgent conditions apart from COVID 19, after which address the dearth of attention given to chronic conditions throughout the first waves. Overarching all of those changes shall be the psychological trauma and mental illness caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. (click on image to enlarge)

from: https://justanoldcountrydoctor.com/2020/04/14/will-health-care-infrastructure-survive-the-covid-19-pandemic/

The only thing I’d change about this very useful visual representation of waves is the timelines. Nurses are actually coping with all of the waves. My friend, a nurse psychotherapist, has been offering free online group anxiety counseling for several weeks to assist people who find themselves struggling to deal with the stress of the pandemic. Another nurse colleague who works in a geriatric clinic contacts clients by phone, but still makes home visits if she is anxious. She said it’s crazy to ask relations to examine for things like swelling. In one case, she visited a person with congestive heart failure who had gained 14 kilos of fluid within the previous 4 days but was afraid to go to the hospital for treatment.

We must find ways to proceed to concentrate to the health needs of our patients beyond the urgent phase of the Covid 19 pandemic. We cannot accept a scarcity of resources or poor quality staff. The pandemic has highlighted nurses’ true value to the system and given them a louder voice. Let’s use it now and to any extent further to be certain that health care is secure and effective. Then we’ll really have something to have a good time within the 12 months dedicated to us.

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