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1918 Redux: Supportive Nursing Care for the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Courageous Care

Litter carriers at Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during influenza pandemic of 1918.

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. […]

2021-01-21T11:05:06-05:00March 18th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing history, Public health|1 Comment
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2020: The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife

By Barbara Stilwell, PhD, RN, FRCN, executive director, Nursing Now, a three-year global campaign seeking to raise the profile of nurses

Barbara Stilwell of Nursing Now

The World Health Organization has declared that 2020, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, will be the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. The year represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to celebrate and thank nurses and midwives for all that they do, and to make clear the critical contribution that our professions can make in achieving universal health coverage. It is urgent that we make the most of 2020.

A global health care workforce crisis.

We are edging ever closer to a significant global health care workforce crisis. The WHO estimates that we are facing a shortfall of 18 million health workers to achieve and sustain universal health coverage by 2030—and approximately half of that shortfall, 9 million health workers, are nurses and midwives.

It is high time, therefore, that countries think radically differently about the way they train, deploy, and look after their health workers, particularly nurses and midwives. This will require political commitment and domestic resource mobilization. Countries will need to increase their allocation to health budgets to invest in their nursing and midwifery workforces, […]

2020-01-03T10:39:51-05:00January 3rd, 2020|health care policy, Nursing, nursing perspective, Public health|0 Comments
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Addressing Harassment and Intimidation by Patients and Family Members

Since arriving at the skilled nursing facility after surgery for throat cancer, Ray had been attempting to touch female nurses inappropriately and had recently started making kissing motions at one of them whenever she entered and left the room.

Tacit acceptance of the unacceptable.

Though his behavior was recognized as unacceptable, most nurses had simply been redirecting him or telling him to stop, with no further consequences. Some explained the harassment away as the crude behavior of an old man who didn’t know any better. He’s from a different time; things were different back then. Some dismissed it as harmless. He thinks he’s being flirty. For others, his behavior was a mild though not particularly threatening irritation. He can’t even get out of his wheelchair—what’s there to worry about?

A symptom of cognitive decline, or plain old bullying?

The situation was complicated by the fact that Ray could not communicate verbally as a result of surgery, had short-term memory impairment, and difficulty concentrating. Although he appeared cognitively sound, there were just enough complications in communication and attention to cause some to speculate that he might be having neurocognitive decline that had disinhibited his self-restraint.

For others, Ray was a bully, maybe even a predator. He was taking advantage of access to female staff who were required to be […]

2019-11-14T10:28:12-05:00November 13th, 2019|career, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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Supporting Systems to Address Clinician Burnout

National Academy of Medicine calls for action to address a crisis among clinicians.

As a nurse and researcher who has worked in the area of clinician burnout for many years, I was pleased to see attention to this issue by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in a recent consensus study report, Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being.

Burnout, a syndrome of “emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment” (Maslach et al. 2001. Job Burnout. Annu Rev Psychol. 52: 397-422), has far-reaching and troubling consequences for health care clinicians. The problem has grown to crisis levels: estimates indicate that 35%-45% of the nearly 4 million nurses in the U.S. are experiencing symptoms of burnout, and up to 54% of our physician colleagues experience it as well.

A ‘chronic imbalance’ of job demands with available resources.

Prominent among the factors contributing to burnout are the systemic patterns that erode professional fulfillment and well-being, many of which are beyond the control of individual clinicians.  Burnout represents a chronic imbalance of job demands with resources needed to meet them.

The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), of which NAM is a part, convened a committee to examine the scientific evidence towards understanding the scope and consequences of burnout on the health […]

2019-11-04T09:34:15-05:00November 4th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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Informing Policy, Driving Change: No Longer Optional for Nurses

Nurses have the knowledge, skills, and obligation.

Rep. Lauren Underwood, left, with AAN president Karen Cox

The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) kicked off its annual policy conference last week by honoring Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, (D-TX), the first registered nurse elected to Congress, and hearing from the nurse most recently elected to the House, Rep. Lauren Underwood, (D-IL). Their presence underscored a viewpoint that is gaining traction in prominent circles, from the World Health Organization to the National Academy of Medicine: Nurses have the knowledge, skills, and obligation to inform policy and drive change.

During her talk, Underwood laid out her policy priorities and expressed her fervent belief that for nurses, “engaging in policy is not optional.”

Underwood serves on three House committees—Veterans’ Affairs, Homeland Security, and Education and Labor—and within those on subcommittees dealing with emergency preparedness, disability assistance, and other topics where she uses her health expertise to influence policy on a range of issues. These include gun violence prevention, black maternal health, infant mortality, drug pricing, and suicide among veterans.

A data-driven approach.

Underwood’s approach to policymaking is data driven. Prompted by research on medication adherence, she sponsored a bill to allow veterans to receive a full-year’s supply of contraceptives rather than having to refill their prescriptions every three months.

When asked about […]

2019-10-29T15:50:34-04:00October 29th, 2019|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing roles, Public health|0 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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