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A Safety Paradox: Stay-at-Home Policies and Domestic Violence Risks

What happens when the very measures put in place to keep us safe and healthy instead place us at risk for harm? For women in abusive relationships, the stay-at-home strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19 can do just that.

A perfect storm of risk factors for escalating violence.

High stress levels, loss of a sense of control, unemployment, increased time together—all are known to increase the frequency and intensity of intimate partner violence (IPV). A study of IPV rates before and after Hurricane Katrina found a 98% increase in physical IPV and a 35% increase in psychological IPV against women after the hurricane, with stressors as one of the strongest predictors for increased violence. IPV rates are known to rise with unemployment rates; a study of IPV during the economic recession of 2007-2008 found that a rapid rise in unemployment led to increased violence and controlling behaviors. And multiple studies have found that IPV incidents occur at much higher rates on weekends and during the summer—times when couples spend more time together. With Covid-19, people are suddenly unemployed and experiencing stress due to economic hardship, fear of illness, and uncertainty about the future. And couples are now spending all their […]

2020-05-04T12:27:03-04:00May 4th, 2020|Nursing, Public health, women's health|0 Comments
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A Message from Frontline Nurses: Let’s Keep the Real Enemy in Sight

The recent protests against stay-at-home restrictions across the country are painful to watch for nurses most affected by the pandemic, those caring for COVID-19 patients. Four RNs working in hospitals in New York City who are graduate students at the Lienhard School of Nursing at Pace University decided to work together with one of their professors to share their thoughts on behalf of nurses on the front lines.

There are refrigerator trucks filled with bodies outside our hospitals. Many of us have to pass by them when we go into work, knowing that among those bodies are the patients we cared for yesterday and when we leave 12 hours later, some of the patients we cared for today will join them. Even harder to handle is the knowledge that among those bodies may be a colleague or friend, fellow nurses who caught COVID-19 while caring for others. It is heartbreaking and terrifying because we know that we too could end up in a body bag shelved in a refrigerator truck.

So, it is no wonder that the sight of people protesting protective measures generates such strong emotions for us—anger, fear, sadness. Anger that in choosing to ignore restrictions, or insisting on the right to risk their own health, they […]

2021-01-21T11:07:20-05:00April 29th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health, students|7 Comments
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Practicing the ABCDEs of Self-Care in Pandemic Times

While talk of the surge in COVID-19 cases continues, what has been less audible in the national discourse is the surge in mental health distress that will be with us long after the pandemic is gone. Many of us who have enjoyed relative psychological well-being are feeling inundated with near-pathological levels of anxiety, uncertainty, anticipatory grief, and real or secondary trauma.

Here are ABCDEs of self-care to keep yourself and loved ones emotionally—and physically—well.

ABCDEs of Self-Care

About

Stay informed as you need to regarding the pandemic, but then promptly pull yourself away and unplug. Initiate what we call a “sensory diet” to limit anxiety-provoking exposure to TV and radio news, social media, print materials, etc., beyond what you must know for yourself, your family, and/or your job. Fearful news can be addictive. Don’t overindulge!

Body

Many people, when asked how they can best care for themselves to stay well, say something on the order of “handwashing, masks, social distancing….” Sure, all that! But we also need to respect the healthy things our mother tried to teach us. How about exercise and fresh air (even if it’s just a three-minute brisk walk around the block), adequate sleep and decent nutrition? Honoring our bodies now will help us stay healthy and […]

2021-01-21T11:10:16-05:00April 13th, 2020|infectious diseases, mental illness, Nursing, wellness|0 Comments
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Two Poems by an ED Nurse

Mask

         -from Latin, masca (specter, nightmare)

My borrowed face,

incorporeal,                blue—

I give you        only

my eyes.

First Sunday on the Ward, Pandemic

Deft swallows nest inside the thorny crown of a stone Christ.

I whisper Our Father . . .                   

twice

over the scrub sink.

 

-Editor’s note: These two spare poems were sent to us recently by Stacy Nigliazzo, an ED nurse and poet whose work has been featured in JAMA and the Bellevue Literary Review, as well as in AJN’s Art of Nursing column. We don’t usually publish poems on this blog, but make an exception here because they seemed to us urgent and yet timeless. Publishing them implies no affiliation of AJN with any particular religion. At the same time, it’s only natural that faiths and practices of every sort are likely to be a source of strength and meaning during this time for nurses around the world. 

2020-04-10T13:39:42-04:00April 10th, 2020|Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Preserving Integrity and Staying Power as a Nurse in a Pandemic

We are in unprecedented times—uncertainty and fear are ever present and nurses are being called to serve others in ways that challenge our appraisal of benefit to our patients and risk to our families’ health and well-being. Many of us are experiencing varying degrees of moral distress and moral outrage arising from the gaps between what we ought to be doing and what we are actually doing under these adverse conditions. It can feel as if it is impossible to do ‘the right thing.’

What can we do to remain whole in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis? How can we accept what seems unacceptable?

Instead of using precious energy in unproductive ways, we can focus on the things that are within our control for meeting the demands of the situation with integrity.

Recognize your moral distress.

It’s easy to get swept away with fear. When fear takes over, we can become paralyzed—unable to think clearly or to act in accordance with our values. One way to confront our fear is to recognize and name the source of the angst.

What is causing your distress? Notice tension anywhere in your body. Accept whatever it is you find. What are the conflicting obligations you are confronting? Try to name the conflict.

You may realize that your core value in the current situation is to not cause harm to your patients. You may say to yourself, […]

2020-04-07T11:14:22-04:00April 7th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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