The year 2020 kicked off on a sour note. The outbreak of Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in January 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). With that news breaking international boundaries, many dramatic changes occurred around the world. The spread of the novel coronavirus left life crippled for many. We saw the massive shift of human activities from the physical world to the virtual realm when lockdowns became the new trend worldwide. Social events came at a halt, which left people isolated and in fear. However, amid this mayhem, emerged a separate class of workers which became known as the essential workforce.
These essential workers are all the doctors, nurses, and front line health workers that got to working instantly on controlling the spread of coronavirus. They started spending there days and nights in saving lives and assisting the victims of the deadly disease. While the world was avoiding social interactions, these essential workers were diving in to fight the virus and save the world. Heroic, to say the least.
Apart from medically assisting patients, these essential workers were also mother roles as well. The nurses have always been a part of policy building where they highlight issues that need addressing by authorities. If you have ever been sick and had to stay at a hospital, you would know the importance of a friendly nurse. Nurses help you fight through your illness or disability and make it easier for you to overcome emotional barriers such as hopelessness and demotivation.
Here we will discuss how nurses day-in and day-out perform a monumental role in uplifting people during the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
- Uplifting the spirits
It is usual for a person to have difficulty doing basic tasks while being severely sick, and this is where nurses assist an individual in carrying out their daily activities. From being functional to getting bedridden is a depressing thing to happen. All this can have a very detrimental effect on the overall emotional state of a patient.
Only when you feel motivated and determined to fight your illness can you cure yourself. And this is where nurses can play a vital role. Nurses work with patients all through the day. Especially during a disease like Covid-19, it is usually just a single nurse interacting with the patient for safety purposes. The designated nurse can converse with the patient, divert their mind from their illness, and give them hope of recovery. They can also discuss healing stories and counsel them regarding any hopelessness or despair the patient may face.
Nurses are skillfully proficient in dealing with and counseling patients. They know how to instill positivity and counter negative emotions. They also see the criticality of assisting patients in dealing with their negative feelings to fight any sickness better. To become a nurse, you need to have the necessary ability to deal with a patient’s deteriorating mental health. Often these are taught through courses and diplomas that the nurses take before joining the practical field. There are many programs relating to bachelor of nursing online or on-campus that you can take up if you wish to pursue nursing as your career.
- Providing Human Connection:
The spread of Covid-19 brought with it a dreadful consequence: social isolation. Since Covid-19 is highly infectious, patients remain under observation in strictly quarantined setups with only a single nurse and a doctor attending them. The patients are not even allowed to meet their family members who tested negative. Social isolation takes a toll on mental and emotional well-being since humans thrive through social interaction. Not being able to talk to your own family or friends can take a severe toll on the health of the patients. It is where nurses come forward and present their contributions. Apart from medically assisting patients, nurses also became responsible for providing Covid-19 patients with the human interaction they so direly needed.
Even though nurses are already well-equipped with the necessary skills required in dealing with patients, Covid-19 poses newer challenges. Social isolation is one factor that has started affecting the masses, especially the suffering victims. Humans are used to social connections, and isolation possesses a threat to mental health. Nurses need a higher level of empathy and an advanced level of skillset to counter these situations. It may bring about the need to provide the nurses with additional proficiencies, and assistance programs such as Pearson Accelerated Pathways has made this quite achievable.
- Spreading Awareness and Busting Myths:
Nurses deal with the patients’ first-hand. They observe behaviors and can better judge the condition of the patient’s health. It is common for people to spread myths during the outbreak of any disease. People come up with their fabricated cures or remedies that can, at times, pose more significant threats to the health of an individual if they follow them blindly. The coronavirus is a new disease, and the vast majority did not know how to react or take precautions. It created a sense of fear and unrest among the masses.
During this time, nurses played a crucial role in helping counter the situation by spreading awareness and sharing personal experiences while dealing with patients. It became critical to ensure that people remained focused on the objective, which was to take all the precautionary measures rather than spreading false information and creating unnecessary distress. In an already panicky situation, nurses helped motivate rational behavior and steer the fear towards productive outlets.
Conclusion:
Nurses are part of the essential workforce that was termed after the spread of Covid-19 to classify workers who were critically needed to fight the global pandemic. They became the frontline fighters and assisted people medically and emotionally. Day-in and day-out nurses proved their essential roles in helping people fight the virus. People all over the globe paid their respects and thanked nurses for their immense sacrifice and contribution to curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
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