Themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

Previously on this blog, I posted about the Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum, an initiative AJN joined back in March to bring forth the experiences and thoughts of nurses working at the point of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together 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) and the folks at New Voice Strategies, we solicited stories from nurses from around the country. Of the many who visited the site, 463 nurses joined and shared their experiences.

Forum moderator Cindy Richards, a professional journalist, worked with four “thought leaders” from the nurses to organize the themes and recommendations from the rich content posted by the nurses.

And while we recognize that the pandemic is far from over (United States cases as of September 20 were over 6.7 million, approaching 200,000 deaths and still on the rise), we felt we had reached a critical mass of content. The stories echoed repetitive themes of heartbreak, heroics, exhaustion, sadness, and anger.

“Nurses often put their patients’ needs before their own. That didn’t change during the pandemic. What did change is that nurses saw the level of sacrifice asked of them and denounced their working conditions under COVID-19 as both unfair and dangerous.”

In the resulting report released last Friday, WikiWisdom Forum – Frontline Nurses, authored by Richards, we hear the nurses’ raw comments and suggestions, which “provide a roadmap for protecting and supporting nurses and ensuring the next virus does not wreak havoc on America and the nursing profession. The Year of COVID-19 has been terrible, but it presents an opportunity for meaningful positive change. If we as a nation listen to nurses, protect nurses and support nurses, 2020 could turn out to be the Year of the Nurse after all. ”

Recommendations born of the conviction that it didn’t have to be this way.

The 14 summary recommendations from those at the front line provide an important perspective born of the reality of dealing with dying patients and grieving families, making do with unsafe equipment, fearing for their own lives and those of their families, and knowing that it didn’t have to be this way. Some of the recommendations can be implemented locally wherever nurses are working and others require policy changes.

The report is free to read and download and we urge you to distribute it widely, especially to administrators, boards, trustees, policy makers, and those who can help make a difference in how we manage the next pandemic. Watch for an expanded summary of the report and podcast in the December issue of AJN.