Will We Ever Know How Many Nurses and Other Health Workers Died from COVID-19?

By Unjay Markiewicz/ Unsplash

The lead article in the March issue of AJN examines the lack of accurate data on deaths from COVID-19 among nurses and other health care workers:

“More than a year after the first SARS-CoV-2 infection was identified in the United States, there is no reliable count of COVID-19 cases or deaths in nurses and other health care workers. The COVID Data Tracker maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 389,380 health care worker infections and 1,332 deaths as of February. Yet, as far back as November of last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported 1,162 staff deaths in U.S. long-term care facilities alone. Still another list, maintained by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News, has counted 3,258 health care worker deaths, 503 of them among nurses.”

So while praised and touted as “heroes,” those who died might not always have been recognized as casualties of the hazards imposed by their jobs during the pandemic. The report also notes:

“[B]ased on past epidemics and state data, health care workers would be expected to make up an estimated 5% to 15% of COVID-19 infections in the United States. With almost 20 million U.S. cases, that would […]

2021-03-25T10:41:28-04:00March 25th, 2021|COVID-19, Nursing|0 Comments
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Learning on the Fly: Thoughts on Birding and Nursing During a Pandemic

“This book is about interpreting what you see and hear in order to make better judgments.”

Tundra Swans, watercolor and ink, 2021 by Julianna Paradisi

It’s my opinion that every nursing textbook should open with the above statement. However, it’s from the introduction to Sibley’s Birding Basics, by David Allen Sibley.

During home isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband and I took up birdwatching as a way to get out of our home and entertain ourselves while maintaining our “bubble.” Armed with binoculars, David’s camera, and my artist’s field bag, we visit local wetlands and wildlife reserves, recording our finds. That led me to read Birding Basics.

Experience coupled with pattern recognition.

As a nurse, I can’t help but link the idea of “interpreting what you see and hear in order to make better judgments” as a definition of a nurse’s intuition, commonly referred to as a “nurse’s gut.”

While there are times when a nurse’s clinical intuition borders on the psychic, many of these revelations are a product of bedside experience. For instance, patients, including infants, sometimes exhibit facial grimaces or say words that a hawk-eyed bedside nurse rightly interprets as signs of impending doom such as a […]

2021-03-23T10:13:08-04:00March 23rd, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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‘Right Under Our Noses’: Nightmarish Nursing Home Conditions During the Pandemic

As vaccinations increase and COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes plummet, it’s easy to forget just how bad things got in many of them and how ill-equipped many were in the the early months of the pandemic to provide humane and effective care.

The following excerpt is from our March Reflections essay, “Right Under Our Noses: Nursing Homes and COVID-19,” which was written by a California nursing professor who volunteered to join a California Medical Assistance Team. The mission of her team was to bring aid to a skilled nursing facility where the coronavirus was rapidly infecting both patients and staff, a facility with little PPE available and many staff members refusing to come to work out of fear of infection.

The conditions I saw were shocking, even to an experienced nurse. I saw soggy diapers on the floor at the heads of many beds on most mornings. One day a bedbound patient needed the bedpan. I searched every closet and drawer but there were no supplies. I filled a basin with warm water and cut up a PPE gown to make washcloths to clean the patient. On the second day of my deployment I realized that many of the […]

2021-03-18T12:10:25-04:00March 18th, 2021|COVID-19, Ethics, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, safe staffing|1 Comment
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No Country for Old People

In my editorial in the March issue, I ask, “Where do we go from here?’” in thinking about what’s next for nursing. In particular, I wonder if we’re going to make any strides in improving the quality of how we care for older adults who need long-term care.

Disasters give rise to assessments of what went wrong.

After prior disasters like hurricanes, heat waves, and flooding, there has often been a flurry of initial concern, with many committees convened to look at the deaths that occurred.

More recently, the New York Times has reported on the fate of nursing home residents during the Covid-19 pandemic in relation to the deterioration of quality in nursing homes once they are owned by for-profit entities—as 70% of nursing homes now are. So here we are once again, this time decrying the conditions revealed by Covid-19. Will things change this time?

In answer to this question, I’m especially pleased with the article in our March issue by 22 nurse gerontology experts. They issue a call (a challenge?) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes to rewrite standards to finally address under-resourcing and ensure residents get the care […]

2021-03-15T15:33:48-04:00March 15th, 2021|COVID-19, nursing roles, patient safety, Patients|1 Comment
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Congress Adds a Nurse

U.S. Representative Cori Bush goes to Washington.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Photo courtesy of Cori Bush.

“It’s critical that nurses have a seat at the table when it comes to the policies coming out of Congress. Every single policy needs a nurse’s eye. We talk a lot about the social determinants of health, because it’s all connected . . . nurses see things in a different way.”

As described in this month’s Profiles column, U.S. Representative Cori Bush, RN, arrived in Washington, DC, in January, bringing with her a nurse’s eye and experience as an activist and pastor.

An election representing several firsts.

Her election marked several firsts: she is the first nurse and Black woman Missouri has sent to Congress, and she is also the first woman representative in her district in its almost 200-year history. Bush joins two other nurses in Congress, Representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Lauren Underwood of Illinois. […]

2021-03-12T11:21:43-05:00March 12th, 2021|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing roles|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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