The lessons of the past. As we struggle to make sense of unfolding data, announcements, and public health directives about the current coronavirus pandemic, appreciating the lessons from past pandemics can help us understand the effectiveness and challenges related to quarantines and social isolation, as well as the need for reliable and timely communications. In times of public health uncertainty, nurses and nursing care have played a critical role in saving lives and relieving suffering. We now know a great deal about the role of nursing during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some lessons need heeding now. Historian Nancy Bristow’s American Pandemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) presents the historical facts clearly. For example, public health officials’ 1918 prohibitions on public gatherings, the sharing of such (then) new personal items as toothbrushes, and school attendance and religious services met acceptance as well as resistance. In 1918, supportive care saved lives. During the 1918 pandemic, medical science struggled with public perceptions of the limits of its ability to respond. There were no tests or cures at the time, and flu vaccines only arrived later. However, the supportive care provided by nurses saved lives. In 1918, as today, it is the critical, too often unrecognized clinical work that helps people withstand the onslaught of a strange infection and mobilize their own immunological responses. Supportive care  is the provision of appropriate hydration, nutrition, fever control, rest, ventilation, and emotional support. The tools of supportive care have changed in many ways since 1918. Hydration from … Continue reading 1918 Redux: Supportive Nursing Care for the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Courageous Care