[Savannah Sharp]

These are very thought-provoking words! Or at least they were for me! It is interesting to think about how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact humanity in the future. As it is now, everyone is caught up in trying to figure out how it affects everyone in the world at the present moment and worrying about the effects of the pandemic in the future seems unnecessary at this time (especially with the new variants showing up). However, I think there will definitely be some long-term effects that humanity will have to deal with in the after math of COVID-19. I for one have also found myself feeling uncomfortable in enclosed spaces, traveling by plane, entering other countries, and physically touching people that I do not know well (like shaking hands or hugging). I was never uncomfortable by these things before COVID-19! Every time I hear someone sneeze or cough, I automatically think about how I can distance myself from that person and fight the urge to wash my hands and cover my nose and mouth with a face mask. I have also asked myself the same question as the author of this post, “Is there any good reason to do this in person?” when thinking about class meetings and work meetings. I have become accustomed to doing these things online via Zoom not only from the comfort of my own home, but also in the comfort of knowing that I have less physical contact with others during this scary time. I am wondering if I will now forever have these thoughts and feelings or if they will fade away with time and eventually go back to the way things used to be pre- COVID.My hope is that they will fade away!

[Savannah Sharp]

As the article mentions, there have been many times throughout history that have shown the great nursing shortages that we have been faced with in times of need. The article proposes three solutions, (1) remove all barriers to nursing practice, (2) utilize senior nursing students, and (3) create a national nursing reserve corps. The first two solutions I have heard mentioned many times before in an effort to do away with nursing shortages. During COVID-19, legislative officials quickly realized the great shortage of APRN’s and the ability for nurse practitioners to be autonomous entities was finally passed! This was in the works for quite some time but had never gone far enough to be passed into law until the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the great need for more APRN’s to service the people. This is a great step forward for the nursing profession! But, why did it take this long? Why did it take a national pandemic for legislative officials to break down this barrier to nursing practice?

The second solution of offering the services of senior nursing students is also interesting. In fact, I graduated nursing school in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic so I remember getting emails about working as a RN under a conditional license before taking my boards. I graduated in June of 2020 and I was not able to sit for my boards until September of 2020. That was 2 months that I could have been offering much needed help in the hospital setting but was unable to do so since I did not take my boards yet. Although I think this is a good idea to some extent, I also feel like it may not offer the safest care to patients since new nurses need training at the very beginning. I do however think that there are CNA duties that new nursing students could help out with, freeing up the nurse to focus on their sickest patients and less on administrative duties.

The idea that peaked my interest in this article was the formation of a national nursing reserve corps! I think that is a great idea and that would significantly help lessen nursing shortages that are inevitable in the future. But I couldn’t help but wonder if there are even enough trained nurses to make up a decent size reserve corps? During COVID-19, all nurses that were able to work were working. The only other people to pull from for help included nursing students and retired nurses. Would that still have been enough to alleviate the shortage? Strengthening and growing the nursing profession should be the focus in order to have an ample amount of trained nurses for situations like these. I enjoyed reading this article and participating in this discussion. It was very thought provoking. Thank you for reading!

[Savannah Sharp]

I enjoyed listening and thinking about the perspectives offered in this video. As a new nurse (1 year of experience), I had quite a shock when I started working and saw just how much responsibility the nurse has for the well being of multiple patients. Most people think that it is the MD’s that do all of the patient care but it could not be any more opposite. The nurse is the one who spends 12 hour shifts at the bedside with the patient actually delivering patient care! With that being said, there have been many instances when time could have and should have been better spent at the bedside with patients instead of completing administrative duties. I think that it would be extremely helpful to have an administrative assistant in order to help ease the burden on nurses and allow them to have more time to spend performing hands on patient care. Due to nurses being so busy and always short staffed, shortcuts are being taken and that is how mistakes happen. Even though I find the idea of assistants to be phenomenal, I sadly do not ever see it happening in the near future. I think it would cost the employer too much money and I think that is unfortunately what has the final word.

I also enjoyed gaining a new perspective on how to eliminate the nursing shortages that COVID-19 has caused. The video offered the idea of bringing retired nurses back to the bedside, accelerating graduation of senior nursing students, and hiring international nurses. The video mentioned that hiring international nurses should be avoided because that means that other countries are losing much needed nurses. I never saw this as an issue when thinking about this solution before but it is true! Nurses are needed in every country. Bringing retired nurses back to the bedside and using senior nursing students might not be the best solutions either. Retired nurses might have forgotten some of their skills or not be aware of up to date practices. Senior nursing students haven’t even begun to start actually practicing their skills in a live workplace and doing so under the stress of a national pandemic might be difficult, especially with the level of patient care that COVID-19 patients require. I feel like these options might actually put patients at risk instead of benefit them. However, these individuals and medical assistants alike can help with administrative duties and allow the nurse to spend more time at the bedside. I also found it interesting that this idea has been implemented before by Lydia Hall in the 1960’s. It shows that nurses have been feeling like they need additional support in order to accurately complete their nursing duties for a while now.

The last issue that sparked my interest in this video was the issue of TV shows stereotyping the work of a nurse. TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy do tend to depict nurses as helpers that only do work in the background. This is quite irritating because nurses are just so amazing and do such amazing work for their patients every shift. The author of the video did mention that there are shows out there that do pay tribute to the work of a nurse such as Call the Midwife. I have personally seen this show and it is amazing. I highly recommend it! Thanks for reading. I enjoyed this forum.

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