Sample Essay on the Impact of COVID-19 on Nursing

A Sample Essay on the Impact of COVID-19 on Nursing

A sample essay on the Impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on Nursing

Or The Implications for COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Cause and Effect Essay on Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 or coronavirus)

Challenges Faced by Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses have been lauded as important frontline healthcare workers who interacted with patients directly to provide different forms of care. Such interactions have affected the nursing workforce in numerous ways (Chan et al., 2021). Understanding these implications in a variety of situations is essential for conducting research, executing innovative strategies, and developing supportive guidelines to mitigate such impacts and to prevent them from recurring next time a pandemic such as COVID-19 strikes (Barrett & Heale, 2021). Therefore, it is important to explore how COVID-19 has affected the nursing workforce both directly and indirectly.

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Health-Related Impacts of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on Nurses

Many nurses have died and some of them have suffered psychological impacts due to COVID-19 (coronavirus). A report by the World Health Organization indicates that approximately 110,000 nurses in May 2021 after contracting COVID-19 from their places of work (Barrett & Heale, 2021). Additionally, the pandemic seriously worsened the nursing shortage that is already experienced by many nations globally. As the number of COVID-19 patients increased rapidly in 2020, nurses had no choice but to work extra hours. A good number of them suffered burnout and mental fatigue which eventually caused negative impacts on their quality of life. Reports indicating the rise in the number of nurses with different mental conditions confirm the psychological impacts that COVID-19 has had on nurses. For example, Al Thobaity and Alshammari (2020) reported increased incidences of depression and anxiety among nurses during the pandemic. Junior nurses in many healthcare settings have also suffered bullying and maltreatment in the hands of senior nurses during the pandemic.

Changes in Media and Public Profiles for Nurses

The media profile of nurses, as well as their public image, has been raised significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. People have been talking about nurses regarding the effort that they have put in caring for patients infected with COVID-19. Some practitioners have been honored due to their contributions to nursing during the pandemic (Koren et al., 2021). This high profile for nurses, both in the media and in the face of the public never used to exist before the pandemic. With this changed profile, nurses are making efforts to make unique contributions that can make them be recognized by their employers the public (Barrett & Heale, 2021). This translates to an increase in the quality of care delivered to patients with different types of illnesses.

Changes in the Roles of Nurses During COVID-19 (coronavirus)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses have found themselves performing roles that they did not imagine they could execute. Nurses, as frontline healthcare professionals, have engaged in numerous activities during the pandemic across different healthcare settings including nursing homes, long-term care agencies, acute care hospitals, community-based clinics among other facilities (Shu-Ching et al., 2020). For example, in addition to providing primary care, nurses have been providing health education to patients and members of the public on the factors that increase the risk of one developing COVID-19 and how to mitigate them. These educational sessions have focused on infection control strategies such as washing hands regularly, avoiding public gatherings, and maintaining social distancing. Moreover, nurses have found themselves engaging in screening patients more than they used to do before the pandemic. They have been screening suspected cases and those who have been in isolation and quarantine for some period of time (Shu-Ching et al., 2020). These roles helped to keep incidences of COVID-19 low.

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Nurses have played a crucial role in protecting the health of patients in long-term care facilities. Notably, patients in long-term care facilities have underlying medical conditions that make them vulnerable to severe forms of COVID-19. Unlike what used to happen before the pandemic, nurses in long-term care facilities are now getting extensively involved in ensuring safety and protecting the care environment for patients (Shu-Ching et al., 2020). They contribute to the development of care plans for patients and in the development of safety policies to govern movement within the facilities including patient visits. Even for patients with immunodeficiency diseases such as HIV, nurses strive to maintain contact with them during the pandemic just to ensure that they are adequately protected (Barrett & Heale, 2021). As Shu-Ching et al. (2020) point out, nurses have found themselves providing critical care to patients quite often during the COVID-19. These changes in roles should be a lesson to nursing institutions and nurses regarding the importance of expanding the scope of role preparation before a pandemic such as COVID-19 strikes.

Shifts in the Healthcare Delivery Processes

There have been numerous shifts in the healthcare delivery processes some of which have affected nurses’ abilities to perform their roles effectively. According to Barrett and Heale (2021), the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in the healthcare delivery process. Some of these changes are irreversible and nurses will be compelled to learn new skills in order to adapt. For example, since the pandemic started, there has been a rapid shift in technological integration into health care. The rate at which physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers meet their patients virtually through telehealth has risen considerably. Nurses must receive training that will provide them with the technological skills for them to remain relevant in the field (Shu-Ching et al., 2020). Notably, with these changes, communication skills on the digital platform are key to effective role performance for nurses going forward.

Nursing Institutions and Preparation of Nurses

Nursing institutions have been forced to revise their curricula and change to improve their teaching approaches based on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Chan et al. (2021) point out, one of the challenges that nursing institutions have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic is shifting from classroom-based instruction to online learning. When countries impose restrictions limiting movement and social gatherings, nursing institutions had to make abrupt changes to deliver instruction online. The process was very slow owing to the technicalities involved, a factor that affected the completion of pre-licensure nursing education programs. The rate at which competent graduate nurses were released to the job market slowed down thereby worsening the problem of nursing shortage globally (Chan et al., 2021). Leaders of nursing institutions have made efforts to improve their systems to ensure that as many nurses as possible are able to complete their licensure and pre-licensure programs to help address the nursing shortage.

Conclusion

COVID-19 has caused numerous impacts on nursing some of which are positive and others which are negative. An example of a negative impact on nurses is the high rates of deaths among nurses after contracting the disease at their places of work. Improvement of the nursing curriculum to provide nurses with pre-requisite skills that they did not have before is an example of the positive impacts of COVID-19 on nursing. Countries should use lessons learned from these impacts to improve their healthcare systems and the nursing profession in particular.

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References

Al Thobaity, A., & Alshammari, F. (2020). Nurses on the frontline against the COVID-19 pandemic: An integrative review. Dubai Medical Journal, 3, 87-92. doi: 10.1159/000509361

Barrett, D., & Heale, R. (2021). COVID-19: reflections on its impact on nursing. Evidence-Based Nursing, 24, 112-113. doi: 10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103464

Chan, G.K., Bitton, J.R., Allgeyer, R.L., Elliott, D., Hudson, L.R., & Moulton, B. P. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce: a national overview. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 26(2), Manuscript 2. doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol26No02Man02. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol26No02Man02

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