Submitted by Stephanie Paulmeno, Greenwich Health Dept, Submitted by Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno, DNP, RN, NHA, CPH, CCM, CDP, Public Health Promotion Specialist
Do you know a nurse? If so, May is a good time to recognize him or her. May is National Nurses Month, May 6th to May 12th is National Nurses Week, and May 6th is National Nurses’ Day. National Nurses Week always ends on May 12th in recognition of Florence Nightingale’s birthday (1820).
Nurses have been prominent and visibly on the front lines and behind the scenes throughout the 3-year pandemic; we were there long before the pandemic began and we will still be there for you when the pandemic is finally behind us. History has borne this out.
The U.S. lost over 3,600 healthcare workers to COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic; 32% of deaths were nurses, 20% were support staff, and 17% were physicians (12 Months of Trauma: More Than 3,600 US Health Workers Died in Covid’s First Year)
Nurses are the highly trained and highly skilled heart and soul of compassionate care providers who are with you at birth; at your bedside at the end of your life if you are in a facility; and providing care and comfort to you and your loved ones throughout some of the most existential healthcare crises people experience. Nurses are your around-the-clock professional presence in healthcare. Nurses monitor you, your lab and test results, and your progress towards or away from your goals, as well as both your plan of care and quality of care; nurses are superb patient and family educators as well as your infection control monitors and practitioners.
For the last two decades and then some, the National Gallup Polls have surveyed people from across the country in order to rate their perceptions about the levels of honesty, trust, and ethics of 17 key professional groups in America (Nurses Retain Top Ethics Rating in U.S., but Below 2020 High)
For all those years nurses have come out not only at the top of the list but generally well above whoever was in second place. This year physicians are #2 and pharmacists are #3.
People trust nurses to be honest and forthright with them and to provide their care, conversations, and services with compassion. The men and women of nursing are not fair-weather friends; we remain in good times and in bad. If we had entered the profession thinking we would get rich or famous we would have been quickly disillusioned of that rose-colored fantasy, and yet nurses have stayed! There are 5-generations of nurses practicing in the field today. Many like me have been in continuous practice for well over 50 years; others returned during the pandemic to help where they could. Many, like me, kept adding additional years of education and training to become licensed administrators, practitioners, specialists, and doctoral levels nurses. The nurses who remained at the bedsides in clinical practice and those providing clinical supervision are our steadfast frontline heroes. You might be surprised to know how many of them are also prepared at the Masters and Doctoral degree levels.
Unlike public perception would have you believe, not all nurses work in traditional roles. The image of the nurse as a handmaiden to the physician is long gone. All healthcare providers are now recognized as partners on the same team; each with a vitally important but different role. Many nurses have advanced degrees or combined professional degrees with educations that can and do exceed a decade of training and clinical practice. Nurses work in multiple settings including but not limited to hospitals, local and state health departments, hospices, emergency services, psychiatric and behavioral health centers, and cognitive and developmental disabilities centers, as well as nursing and rehabilitation facilities. Nurses are found in clinical and leadership roles in adult and child daycare centers, assisted living facilities, and home care, as well as in public and private schools, colleges, and universities. Some are flight nurses or travel nurses. We have men and women in nursing in the military and in local, state, and national government as well as in legislative positions. We have industrial nurses, research nurses, nursing professors, and nurses in the pharmaceutical industry. Others work in Federally Qualified Community Health Centers, clinics, community centers, physician’s offices, prisons, and correctional centers. Some APRNs are totally independent practitioners. Many nurses work in top-level administration and supervisory positions. The CEOs of Greenwich, Stamford, Connecticut Valley, and Sharon Hospital are all nurses, as is the President of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Executives. Many nursing homes and assisted living facilities have nurses appointed as their top executives. This makes great sense because the basic training of a nurse includes the basics of virtually all other healthcare professionals (e.g.: normal and abnormal anatomy, physiology, psychology, and laboratory values and studies; chemistry and organic chemistry, biology, and infection control, sociology, and nutrition along with all the art and science underlying the practice of nursing. Clinical rotations include medical-surgical nursing, operating room nursing, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatric nursing, and community/public health nursing.
The vast majority of Board-certified case managers (86%) are nurses (CCMs are seasoned professionals.) Nurses are heavily represented in such services as the Medical Reserve Corps (MRCs), the American Red Cross, and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). Many nurses serve actively on Commissions, Boards of Directors, Boards of Trustees, and Advisory Boards of healthcare and non-healthcare agencies, organizations, and businesses. Connecticut also boasts a volunteer Nurses Honor Guard that responds upon request in full uniform (whites, caps, and capes) to provide a tribute at the funerals and/or wakes of nurses who have died anywhere across the state.
Nurses can choose to be educated along a range of options that progress from being a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN; 1-year), a Licensed Registered Nurse with a 2-year Nursing Associates Degree (RN/ADN), a 4-year Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN), a prestigious Nursing Master’s degree (MSN), or with the highest nursing degree attainable, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). With additional training and passing of Board exams, nurses can become licensed and certified clinical specialists in distinct fields of practice such as nurse midwives, nurse anesthesiologists, or advanced practice nurses in several specialized categories.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge emotional toll on nurses (and other health professionals). The American Nurses Association responded by dedicating time, resources, and expertise to defining and addressing the growing nurse-suicide crisis (Nurse Suicide Prevention/Resilience).
The Connecticut Licensing Board responded by mandating required training to address PTSD, suicide, depression, anxiety, and grief reactions and how to build resilience (https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Practitioner-Licensing-Investigations/Registered-Nurse/Continuing-Education). Also being in these programs for nurses are workplace violence, toxic work environments, nurse abuse and incivility, and bullying as risk factors for nurses working in the field. Before leaving office in my final term as President of the Connecticut Nurses Association, I created and posted two 1-hour enduring on-line programs where nurses could obtain this required training ( Part I: https://ctnurses-elearn.org/courses/the-suicide-crisis-1/) and (Part II: https://ctnurses-elearn.org/courses/the-
suicide-crisis-2/).
While we may be declaring the pandemic over in America, any contact tracer can tell you that we are still tracking, monitoring, and case-managing many people of all ages who continue to be infected daily with one or another of the COVID-19 variants. New variants will emerge as the virus mutates. Some of those who become infected will continue to require hospitalization and care at home, so nurses will continue to be working on the various front lines. Please take a moment to pass a kind word on to the nurses in your lives during National Nurses Month, Week, and Day. It will be appreciated!