Modern issues: nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Discussion board post for NURS608 Philosophical and Critical Foundations in Nursing, posted on May 17, 2022.

Working as a bedside nurse during the pandemic has been an experience I will not soon forget. I was working in the emergency department during the onset of the pandemic, and initially it felt like the silence before the storm. As news spread of the need to open capacity for an onslaught of COVID patients, our hospitals essentially cleared out and we waited with bated breath for the COVID patients to pour in. Eventually they did, and despite expecting it, it still felt like we were unprepared. About a year into the pandemic, I was redeployed to a COVID ICU, which was an experience I hope to never have again because it was, in one word, depressing. It was especially emotionally draining when dealing with those patients who ended up intubated because they had refused vaccines, or whose stories involved risky behaviors because they did not believe in the virus. It was heart-wrenching to watch their families at the bedside, covered head to toe in PPE, holding their hand and willing for them to recover from the strokes or heart attacks that resulted from their COVID infections. Meanwhile, it felt like the outside world had no knowledge of what was occurring behind those hospital walls, as they protested for a return to pre-COVID times and refused life-saving vaccines. Even more jarring was the government lauding of nurses as heroes simultaneous to the news stories exposing nursing burnout and exodus from the bedside, which those of us on the front lines were living. It fostered disdain toward the empty accolades of our government leaders.

Instead of making meaningful changes in response to the issues that were arising, it seemed like the focus of our leaders both within hospitals and in government was simply to find more nurses. Nothing makes you feel quite so dispensable as the messaging that there are always more of you willing to work. And so, my perception of nursing as a profession became a bit jaded, as I realized the government views us as task-performers, and does not appreciate how important experience, knowledge, and critical thinking skills developed over years as practitioners are to patient safety and health outcomes. But I believe nurses are also in a position where we can rise above this perception and we have strong voices that the public will actually listen to, if we are brave enough to use them. Many nurses established strong social media and news platforms during the pandemic to highlight and reveal the issues we face within hospitals. They are not afraid to speak up, but most importantly their voices are respectful, with well-formed arguments, and calm, demonstrating the same professionalism we speak of as inherent to our nursing profession. Fundamentally, I believe nurses embody so much public trust and respect because we are able to rise above struggles we face along the way and maintain our values and professionalism.