The ‘Nursing Perspectives on the Impacts of COVID-19’ article by Chen et al. published on 18 th June, 2020 elaborates on nurses' contribution during this period of coronavirus outbreak. According to the article, the crucial functions and roles of nurses cover five significant domains. The initial domain of nursing is offering screening services, health education, and even supporting people in high-risk groups. Health education covers infection prevention strategies such as informing people to wash hands regularly, avoid touching noses, eyes, and mouths, and cancel group activities like communal dining. As indicated by the article, screening services concentrate on screening people for potential infections like COVID-19. At the same time, support focuses on offering emotional support to those people that have been isolated due to the pandemic.
Apart from providing health education and screening services, nurses also provide nosocomial infection surveillance and prevention. In this domain, nurses screen suspected cases, implement standard precautions, and train families, healthcare staff and patients to prevent nosocomial infections. Additionally, nurses offer isolation care, conduct respiratory and fever examinations, and further offer emotional and physical support to people under quarantine restrictions (Lockhart et al., 2020). The third domain of nurses stipulated in the article is implementing suitable precautions and preparations in nursing homes and sustainable healthcare settings. Since patients in nursing homes and long-term facilities are vulnerable to contracting infections such as COVID-19, nurses should prepare a safe environment at these sites to prevent further spread of the disease. Nurses create care plans such as determining as well as controlling ill patients, establishing safe visitors’ policies that limit number of people who visit the patient and carrying out significant education and training.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The fourth domain of nursing involves protecting patients with underlying diseases such as cancer, chronic illnesses, and immune deficits. These people are at significant risk of being infected by COVID-19 infection than any other people. Cancer patients, particularly those with hematological malignancies undergoing chemotherapy and patients receiving bone marrow transplants and immunosuppressive therapies, are cared and educated by nurses to prevent further spread of the infection. Educating people on protective strategies is a significant role of nurses
As discussed in this article, the final domain of nurses is offering care to COVID-19 patients in critical condition. Coronavirus pandemic induces severe pneumonia and causes death in every age group, with older people, and people with immune deficits are the most affected. Nurses offer urgent and intensive care to these patients, especially those with severe conditions. However, they should ensure that they are protected by sufficient individual protective equipment to prevent them from being infected. When caring for COVID-19 patients, nursing staff offer life-sustaining care to assist patients recover from the pneumonia and offer psychological support to people that a distress state.
Apart from outlining nurses' role, the article also discussed the primary challenges that nurse professionals face during the coronavirus outbreak. One of the critical challenges that nurses faced is support to bridge the gap in essential knowledge. Because COVID-19 is a new infection, nurses might face infection risk, mental health issues as well as potential work-related anxiety (Moghadas et al., 2016). Therefore, it is significant to utilize current insight to safeguard nursing staff as well as healthcare professionals who care for COVID-19 patients. As indicated by Chen et al. (2020), healthcare providers should be educated on infectious disease risks such as proper personal protective equipment use, environmental measures, and appropriate personal hygiene practices. Nurses also have a challenge in preventing healthcare system inadequacies, particularly in conveying adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the healthcare system. Inadequate PPEs have been associated with illness and occupational exposure. Improving both procurement and production is vital to ensure safety in the workplace.
The workforce shortage is another challenge that has been experienced during outbreaks of well-known infectious diseases such as H1N1, Ebola and COVID-19. Healthcare professionals’ shortage during COVID outbreaks are caused by numerous uncertainties concerning real cases of infections among healthcare staff. Healthcare, government, as well as nursing administration system policies may control the quick COVID-19 spread by applying protective equipment use, infection control education, and isolation of infected patients. Employment incentives and benefits policies may be utilized to increase staff retention during the outbreaks. Nurses also face psychological and social support challenges. During new infectious diseases outbreak, anxiety, panic, and uncertainty spread rapidly as the overall situation continues to change. Therefore, it is significant to support people with the disease, healthcare professionals, and those under isolation to prevent conflicts that stem from disease-related isolation and discrimination.
The article is significant to the topics covered because it provides more insights into nurses' role and the challenges they are facing during this time of coronavirus outbreak. From this article, people can learn the importance of nurses during the contagious outbreak in caring and providing health education to affected or infected people.
In summary, nurses are vital members of the healthcare team responsible for managing and preventing infectious diseases spread. In most cases, they work on the frontline, offering care to people infected with coronavirus. However, health organizations need to create better recommendations to incorporate current insight into the education of nurses. As efforts to manage and prevent coronavirus outbreak remain ongoing, nurses should protect themselves as they provide care to the infected people. The government and nursing administration systems should better understand the stress, concerns, and perceptions of nursing to provide important information that administrative systems utilize to support nurses during future contagious disease outbreaks.
References
Lockhart, M., Hill, S. J., Merolla, J., Romero, M., & Kousser, T. (2020). America’s electorate is increasingly polarized along partisan lines about voting by mail during the COVID-19 crisis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(40), 24640-24642.
Chen, S. C., Lai, Y. H., & Tsay, S. L. (2020, June 18). Nursing Perspectives on the Impacts of COVID-19. The journal of nursing research: JNR.
Moghadas, S. M., Fitzpatrick, M. C., Sah, P., Pandey, A., Shoukat, A., Singer, B. H., & Galvani, A. P. (2020). The implications of silent transmission for the control of COVID-19 outbreaks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 17513-17515.
