COVID-19 & Personal Beliefs/Values

Module 2 Discussion

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare fraternity implemented various urgent responses and interventions to detect, diagnose, combat, treat, and manage further contamination. However, nurses and other primary health care providers ultimately positioned at the frontline in the fight against the pandemic were potentially at risk of contracting the illness for themselves and likely to spread to other individuals or their families following close contact (Patel & Metersky, 2021). Such uncertainties forced the health workforce to choose or be forced to remain in isolation from their loved ones. Such experiences were devastatingly stressful, with subsequent impact on personal values and beliefs. This paper will discuss the COVID-19’s effect on personal beliefs and values in clinical practice.

 Provision of health care during the COVID-19 pandemic was overwhelmingly challenging and stressful. It was highly demanding to provide nursing care following the surge in admission rates and the need to accommodate constant changes and new protocols in the mitigation and management of the crisis (Sperling, 2021). With the limited resources in health facilities coupled with the need to go for quarantine, the provision of nursing care was highly challenging, hence inducing a stream of varied thoughts and anxiety. Following such experiences, I was subjected to intense pressure regarding ethical issues about health care provision. With the awareness of the lack of professional resources in the health facility and the surge in the admission of patients with COVID-19 symptoms, exacerbation of ethical tension was inevitable.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ethical and moral issues were significantly affected. The pandemic negatively affected my ethical values and beliefs following the obligation to provide quality patient care and maintain appropriate patient relationships (Strier & Shdaimah, 2020). In some instances, I experienced ethical dilemmas in providing nursing care to patients with COVID-19 complications. With some older adults being unresponsive to respiratory support, I was tempted to wean them off the oxygen therapy and fix them for responsive young adults. In such instances, most weaned-off patients would succumb to breathing difficulties.

The packing of hospital beds to capacity was another issue culminating in ethical and moral tension. Having to decide where to admit and manage newly reported cases or which patients to discharge to isolation centers was challenging. Unfortunately, most patients had to share beds in pairs, contrary to professional and standard nursing practice guidelines (Patel & Metersky, 2021). My moral values and obligations to deliver quality, safe and standardized care were overwhelmed. As such, most of the patients ended up with increased hospital stays and recurrence of symptoms. In addition, this practice culminated in increased mortalities among COVID-19 patients while in the clinical settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic was overwhelmingly a demanding and challenging phenomenon among health care providers. As such, it yielded a plethora of mixed reactions and emotions to nurses, notably those in critical care settings. Unfavorable working environments further demotivated the health care providers, negatively impacting my personal beliefs and values. The experiences and events that transpired in the clinical settings during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated some shift from professional and standardized health care providers to manage the crisis effectively. 

 

 

References

Patel, K. M., & Metersky, K. (2021). Reflective practice in nursing: A concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Knowledge.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/2047-3095.12350 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.) .

Sperling, D. (2021). Ethical dilemmas, perceived risk, and motivation among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing Ethics, 28(1), 9-22.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0969733020956376 (Links to an external site.)

Strier, R., & Shdaimah, C. (2020). ‘The Faintest Stirring of Hope Became Possible’: Pandemic Postscript. Ethics and Social Welfare, 14(3), 242-247.  https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2020.1798603