THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSION

Instructions:

Respond with suggestions to two of your colleagues by confirming their critical role in improving the healthcare system.

**minimum of three (3) scholarly references are required for each reply cited within the body of the reply & at the end**

Kristen Dross

                In this week's topic, we shed some light on one of these nine key areas; from first-hand experience, I've seen how the lack of supporting the health and well-being of nurses has affected the patients and their families. According to The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine, "the health and well-being of nurses influence the quality, safety, and cost of the care they provide." Before the pandemic, I loved my job as an ICU nurse, and it was gratifying to watch the sickest patients recover well enough to transfer out of ICU to a step-down unit, but when covid hit, all hope was lost. Pre-pandemic, it wasn't very often we had patients pass on us, but when we did counseling and grieving, support was offered to us nurses because learning how to cope with death was hard at times. One patient still sticks with me daily because she was a young mother who had taken her two boys on a family vacation to Disney, where she contracted influenza. This young mother's body started failing her fast she ended up on a rotoprone bed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ARDS, the physicians tried everything possible to save this mother's life, but unfortunately, nothing worked. I remember the two little boys coming to the hospital the last night she lived to tell their mommy goodbye and that they would see her again someday. Nothing in my career prepared me for the emotions that came with caring for this patient, but when we received grieving support during our shift, it helped with my well-being that day.

 Then during Covid, I remember telling my husband how I feel like a terrible nurse now because I became desensitized to being able to grieve or feel anything from a patient dying. I remember feeling like we didn't have any time to have emotions about a patient passing because it was only a matter of time before you had the next sick covid patient on a ventilator that wasn't far from dying. Our way of coping became us nurses, making a joke between each other before we received the following admission. Looking back at the lack of compassion we showed our patients and their family members is disgraceful as a nurse, but we lacked support for our mental health and well-being, so we had no compassion. In November of 2021, the hospital I was working at started having a moment of silence after a patient passed. This moment of silence included the family members, the nurse or nurses that care for the patient, the charge nurse, and the nurse manager. Someone would say a few words while standing at the bedside, and we would all stand in silence for a minute before leaving the room. This allowed us, nurses, to have the support we needed for our well-being to be the most compassionate person for this family. From time to time, I sometimes struggle with remembering to accept the support offered by the chaplain when we have a terrible day, but we nurses must put our health and wellbeing first, or we won't be able to provide our patients with the best care possible.

 

Reference:

· National Academy of Medicine (2021).  Consensus Study Report HIGHLIGHTS: The Future of Nursing 2020–2030. Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity Links to an external site. . https://www.nap.edu/resource/25982/Highlights_Future%20of%20Nursing_4.30.21_final.pdf