COVID-19: It’s Not Only About Hospital-Based Nurses

‘We all just went charging towards this monster…’

We’ve all seen the photos of nurses in PPE providing care to patients who are obviously very ill with COVID-19. These nurses have justifiably received recognition and accolades for their commitment to duty under the most challenging circumstances and often at great personal risk.

I recently spoke with Megan Brunson, the president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), who is also a supervisor in the cardiovascular ICU at Medical City Dallas Hospital.

Brunson described her own experiences, but also what she was hearing from her colleagues as they all “just went charging towards this monster called COVID.” She also talked about how the organization was rapidly developing resources, not only for clinical care but to help nurses deal with emotional stress. One initiative is partnering with DearWorld.org to create a collection of portraits and stories from nurses caring for patients with COVID-19.

Disrupting work in many settings.

But it behooves us to realize that this pandemic has not caused stress and critical challenges just for acute care nurses; nurses in many settings have been challenged and have had their work disrupted.

In the last two weeks, I spoke with nurses and nursing leaders of several organizations to learn about how the coronavirus pandemic has changed their work. […]

2020-05-15T17:09:36-04:00May 15th, 2020|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing roles|0 Comments
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Addressing Clinician Mental Health and Suicide Risk During the Pandemic

Pandemics are known to cause panic disorder, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and posttraumatic stress. Depression can lead to suicide if not treated, yet is a treatable disease. We have seen nurses die by suicide during this pandemic in Italy.

Past experience suggests that health care workers exposed to the stress of the pandemic will need help long after the pandemic is under control.

I am serving as co-chair of the Strength Through Resilience task force of the American Nurses Association, whose focus was originally to collate resources to reduce suicide among nurses. We quickly shifted gears when the pandemic hit to collate resources to optimize resiliency and mental health among nurses in relation to the projected impact of the pandemic. Curiously, these resources are virtually identical. The ANA has posted initial resources as part of their Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation campaign and is and building more resources as quickly as possible.

Nurses already at higher suicide risk.

The added stress of the pandemic is particularly problematic because of evidence that emerged before the pandemic that nurses were at higher risk of suicide than the general public. If leaders at health care organizations have not already started proactively […]

2020-05-12T16:27:31-04:00May 12th, 2020|COVID-19, mental illness, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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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 time […]

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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Coronavirus Casting Environmental, Climate Issues Into Sharp Relief

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the vital link between public health and the environment.

Since 1970, April 22 has been designated Earth Day. The theme of this year’s observations, held digitally due to the pandemic, is climate action, with the organizers calling climate change “the biggest challenge to the future of humanity.”

The biggest immediate challenge facing humanity is coronavirus. Yet, just as the pandemic’s economic fallout highlights the interconnectedness of health and the economy, this crisis underscores the ongoing environmental emergency and its link to public health.

Air pollution and COVID-19 deaths.

Since coronavirus first emerged, there’s been speculation about a link between air pollution and severe illness or death. Early this month, a nationwide study conducted by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offered evidence of a connection: even a small increase in long-term exposure to fine particulate matter—dangerous inhalable solids or liquid droplets in the air—is associated with a large increase in the COVID-19 death rate.

The inhalation of fine particulate matter is known to cause inflammation and damage to the lungs, making a person more susceptible to asthma, heart conditions, and other health problems. Fuel combustion—for example, automobile and industrial emissions—is one of the main sources of these microscopic pollutants.

Communities […]

2020-04-22T08:31:24-04:00April 22nd, 2020|environmental health, 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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