Although 2020 is finally over, its tragic aftermath and seismic impact has changed the world in ways not imaginable a year ago. The storm still rages, faster and more furious than ever. Nurses are being hit with the full brunt and many feel as if they are balancing at the edge of a precipice. The nursing profession is experiencing a continuous sentinel event with adverse effects too numerous to count. Root causes run deep. Sustainable solutions are possible but require new ways of thinking and doing across broad sectors of society to be successful.
The availability of quality healthcare is often taken for granted, like a utility that runs in the background unnoticed until it breaks. We are poised at healthcare's breaking point, not only from the surges of patients with COVID-19, but also from an impending exodus of nurses, providers, and other healthcare workers who are exhausted from working under untenable conditions, often without feeling valued by employers.
Before the pandemic, the business end of healthcare created cumbersome processes and tasks that prioritized improving the bottom line over building sustainable, healthy conditions for both clinicians and patients at the point of care delivery. Throw a pandemic into that mix with its own inherent stressors, then add in critical shortages of staff, beds, equipment, and supplies, and a different type of disaster looms on the horizon.
Priorities need to change on many fronts. To start, disaster infrastructure must be improved on local, state, and federal levels so that stockpiles and supply lines of critical items such as PPE are readily available. High profit margins must take a back seat to prioritizing frontline staffing and care delivery processes that are evidence-based, safe, easier to execute, efficient, and professionally gratifying for sustainability and better patient outcomes.
The value of each nurse and every other healthcare team member must be recognized...not through "flavor of the month" engagement programs, but genuine conversations, support when it counts, mentoring, development, and an overall "I have your back" servant leadership philosophy. Nurses must be full members of high-level local and federal decision-making bodies to provide perspective and expertise. Public health strategies must be coordinated, evidence-based, and effectively led.
Systems must be built to handle both the calm and the inevitable storms. The foundation is sound when this quote rings true for all on the front lines: "Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm."*
Be safe and well,
LINDA LASKOWSKI-JONES, MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, CEN, NEA-BC, FAWM, FAAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NURSING2021