A note from AJN’s editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy.

Published: March 30. As I write this, the United States has over 140,000 COVID-19 cases and over 2,400 deaths, and we’re told those numbers have yet to peak. The US Navy hospital ship Comfort is on it’s way to New York City, bringing its 1,000 beds to be used as a supplemental hospital. Its sister ship Mercy is on its way to Los Angeles. Bedside nurses and CNOs alike talk about the “war zone” that their hospitals have become. And they’re exhausted: many ICU nurses are working five days of 12-hour shifts as they await help from nurses who are getting crash courses in ventilator management.

Perspectives for and by nurses, from many angles.

Our goals during this pandemic are to serve as a reliable and up-to-date source of information and advocacy for those on the front line, to bear witness and give nurses and other health workers a voice during these uncertain times.

We’ve been using this blog to bring you evidence-based information about the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly via posts by our clinical editor Betsy Todd, whose expertise is in public health and infectious disease. She has done a yeoman’s job, researching the latest information and ensuring what we publish on PPE and COVID-19 is in in accord with the most current state of knowledge at the time—even contacting study researchers to verify facts and analysis when questions arise. We will continue to post new, vetted information you need to know about COVID-19 as we head into another month of staying home and physically distancing from each other.

But we also have other voices who have important information and perspectives to share—we’ve brought you some of these already (all of this blog’s COVID-19 posts can be found here):

  • a post on crisis staffing from emergency response experts Tener Veenema, Roberta Lavin, and Mary Pat Couig;
  • one from historian Pat D’Antonio reminding us how nurses served in the 1918 influenza pandemic and suggesting crucial lessons for our current response;
  • a post from a young nurse sharing her difficulty in providing care to ICU patients with COVID-19 with woefully inadequate protective equipment;
  • and an eloquent piece from a social worker drawing on historical parallels from as far back as the Black Death to examine the current moral dilemma facing nurses, social workers, and others.

Podcasts.

We’ll also be doing podcasts with nurses to get perspectives—this first one is with Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, the clinical director of the Oncology Nursing Society, discussing special concerns for patients undergoing chemotherapy and for nurses who now may not have protective equipment necessary for handling toxic medications.

 

We’ve made our Disaster & Emergency Preparedness article collection free.

While some articles are several years old, much of the information is still extremely helpful and relevant, especially that on ethics and crisis standard of care.

The journal’s COVID-19 Watch page lists all articles, blog posts, and other resources we hope will be helpful. We’ll add to them as we become aware of more.

Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum.

We’ve also joined with Cynda Rushton (Johns Hopkins School of Nursing & Berman Institute of Bioethics and AJN editorial board member) and Theresa Brown (nurse, author, and AJN contributing editor) on a Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum, a site that will provide a place for sharing experiences, but ultimately “… showcase ideas, possibly on the importance of communication and the need to keep bedside nurses safe, but also including suggestions large and small that would make a difference in preparing America for our next national disaster.” Already, we’re hearing from nurses around the country.

The ‘irreplaceable work of nursing.’

Eileen Kennedy, president of the International Council of Nurses, noted,

“In this Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, the eyes of the world are on our profession in a way that we could not have anticipated. Nurses are in the spotlight, and all around the planet this tragic pandemic is revealing the irreplaceable work of nursing for all to see.”

These are difficult times and we are in a global crisis that will test everyone in many ways. We will help in any way we can. If you have an suggestions or requests, feel free to let us know. We wish you well.