COVID-19: Where Do We Go From Here?

By AJN editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy

It’s mid-April and I feel like I’m in one of those B-rated movies of the 1950s—where the atomic bomb hit and everyone is sequestered in bunkers, only venturing out to forage for food.

I’m entering our 5th week following stay-at-home recommendations and I guess it’s paying off—New York (where I usually work) and New Jersey (where I live) seem to be seeing a slight “flattening of the curve.” (Does anyone not know about the COVID-19 curve? See this site by the University of Michigan for an explanation).

But that good news is tempered by the fact that some states have yet to see their peak. In addition, we’ve yet come with grips in how to deal with the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes, prisons, and shelters.

It’s worrisome to me that there is already talk of relaxing stay-at-home orders and social distancing before we have sufficient testing to have a clear understanding of how the disease spreads, before some states have reached their peak, and before we have refined the process of supplying and protecting health care workers. No one doubts that the economic shutdown is causing tremendous suffering, but without a firm grasp on how best to contain this […]

2020-04-16T10:26:04-04:00April 16th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
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Practicing the ABCDEs of Self-Care in Pandemic Times

While talk of the surge in COVID-19 cases continues, what has been less audible in the national discourse is the surge in mental health distress that will be with us long after the pandemic is gone. Many of us who have enjoyed relative psychological well-being are feeling inundated with near-pathological levels of anxiety, uncertainty, anticipatory grief, and real or secondary trauma.

Here are ABCDEs of self-care to keep yourself and loved ones emotionally—and physically—well.

ABCDEs of Self-Care

About

Stay informed as you need to regarding the pandemic, but then promptly pull yourself away and unplug. Initiate what we call a “sensory diet” to limit anxiety-provoking exposure to TV and radio news, social media, print materials, etc., beyond what you must know for yourself, your family, and/or your job. Fearful news can be addictive. Don’t overindulge!

Body

Many people, when asked how they can best care for themselves to stay well, say something on the order of “handwashing, masks, social distancing….” Sure, all that! But we also need to respect the healthy things our mother tried to teach us. How about exercise and fresh air (even if it’s just a three-minute brisk walk around the block), adequate sleep and decent nutrition? Honoring our bodies now will help us stay healthy and well, […]

2021-01-21T11:10:16-05:00April 13th, 2020|infectious diseases, mental illness, Nursing, wellness|0 Comments
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Two Poems by an ED Nurse

Mask

         -from Latin, masca (specter, nightmare)

My borrowed face,

incorporeal,                blue—

I give you        only

my eyes.

First Sunday on the Ward, Pandemic

Deft swallows nest inside the thorny crown of a stone Christ.

I whisper Our Father . . .                   

twice

over the scrub sink.

 

-Editor’s note: These two spare poems were sent to us recently by Stacy Nigliazzo, an ED nurse and poet whose work has been featured in JAMA and the Bellevue Literary Review, as well as in AJN’s Art of Nursing column. We don’t usually publish poems on this blog, but make an exception here because they seemed to us urgent and yet timeless. Publishing them implies no affiliation of AJN with any particular religion. At the same time, it’s only natural that faiths and practices of every sort are likely to be a source of strength and meaning during this time for nurses around the world. 

2020-04-10T13:39:42-04:00April 10th, 2020|Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Far from Home, a Flight Nurse Cares for One of COVID-19’s ‘Peripheral Victims’

‘Deemed stable to fly home.’

Our fixed-wing air ambulance was recently dispatched to Spain to bring 87-year-old John and his wife of 62 years, Rose, home to the US. They’d traveled to Spain for their annual vacation before “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” were household terms, but John had fallen early on in the trip and broken a hip. He’d spent four weeks in a local hospital and had his injured hip surgically repaired, and then was deemed “stable to fly home” by a doctor. And so he’d been transported back to his hotel two days prior to our arrival. The crew deposited him in the bed, bid farewell to his wife, and left.

Spain’s deserted beaches seen from author’s hotel room, March 2020

And now John was dying. He lay on the twin bed in his hotel room. His eyes were closed. His breathing was rapid and shallow. My partner and I stood, stunned into momentary silence. We had come straight to his hotel from the airport, and his condition was far worse than we had anticipated.

We’d left our equipment in the aircraft, as John’s transport was planned for the following morning to allow time for our pilots to rest. John’s respiratory rate was 60 with frequent pauses, his pulse weak, heart rate about 95 and irregular. He wouldn’t open his eyes or respond to us verbally, but he fought us when we tried to move him. He was covered in feces.

No room at […]

2020-04-09T10:25:10-04:00April 9th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing stories|3 Comments
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Preserving Integrity and Staying Power as a Nurse in a Pandemic

We are in unprecedented times—uncertainty and fear are ever present and nurses are being called to serve others in ways that challenge our appraisal of benefit to our patients and risk to our families’ health and well-being. Many of us are experiencing varying degrees of moral distress and moral outrage arising from the gaps between what we ought to be doing and what we are actually doing under these adverse conditions. It can feel as if it is impossible to do ‘the right thing.’

What can we do to remain whole in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis? How can we accept what seems unacceptable?

Instead of using precious energy in unproductive ways, we can focus on the things that are within our control for meeting the demands of the situation with integrity.

Recognize your moral distress.

It’s easy to get swept away with fear. When fear takes over, we can become paralyzed—unable to think clearly or to act in accordance with our values. One way to confront our fear is to recognize and name the source of the angst.

What is causing your distress? Notice tension anywhere in your body. Accept whatever it is you find. What are the conflicting obligations you are confronting? Try to name the conflict.

You may realize that your core value in the current situation is to not cause harm to your patients. You may say to yourself, I […]

2020-04-07T11:14:22-04:00April 7th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective|3 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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