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World’s nurses are ‘stepping up’ to Covid-19 crisis, says ICN chief

The nursing response to the coronavirus crisis has gone way beyond the core purpose of 2020 as the International Year of the Nursing and Midwife, and what could ever have been expected by those behind the idea, according to a global nursing leader.

The key contribution of nurses in tackling Covid-19 has focused the world’s attention on the profession in an unexpected but very tangible way, said Howard Catton, chief executive of the International Council of Nurses.

The profession is central to tackling the pandemic and, in every country, have “stepped up and stepped beyond”, stressed Mr Catton in an interview with Nursing Times.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in May last year that 2020 would be dedicated nurses and midwives, providing a “once in a generation opportunity” to showcase them. It chose the theme to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale in May this year.

Raising awareness of modern-day nursing, as well as highlighting the power and potential of nurses to address big health challenges, were all aims for the year of the nurse, noted the ICN chief executive.

This was, he said, intended to then help “make the case for better support, better investment and better resourcing of the nursing and midwifery professions”.

“If I look what is happening with Covid-19, what more powerful, practical demonstration could you have of all of those things?” said Mr Catton.

“Arguably, nursing has moved into a global spotlight in a way that calling it ‘year of the nurse’ never would have.” He added that the response to the pandemic showcased to the world that nursing “really is saving lives”.

Events that were intended to celebrate the profession this year have been put on hold or postponed as a result of the virus, including the Florence Nightingale service, held in Westminster Abbey each year, and the Royal College of Nursing’s annual congress. Mr Catton noted that the ICN had also cancelled events and meetings over recent weeks.

When asked how celebrations of the profession could avoid being lost, he said: “There will and must be a time for reflection and for celebration. When that is, is to be decided.

“But what I think that nurses should do right now [is] feel huge pride. Nurses are going to be hugely busy and exhausted, but they should take a moment to feel immensely proud and to feel that they are not alone in this as well.

“Yes, year of the nurse plans have changed. But look at what is happening with Covid and the nursing response to it, and how actually it is highlighting and showcasing and profiling lots of the things that we wanted to achieve out of the year of the nurse and midwife – not in the way we would of wanted; none of us would have wanted it in this way, but this is our reality and this is what nurses are doing.”

Mr Catton added that “whenever we get the other side of this” he would personally “like to extend year of the nurse and midwife”. He even mooted the idea of a “decade” of the professions instead.

“We need to put nurses right at the centre of our planning and of the support we are providing”

Howard Catton

Reflecting on the response to Covid-19 so far, Mr Catton stressed the importance of different countries sharing and learning from one another and said he had seen relationships between nurses in different regions strengthened through this.

For example, he said sharing was being done around “what did and did not work, and what some of the issues and challenges are that people may not have thought about or considered before”.

Mr Catton highlighted shared examples of best practice for personal protective equipment, advice on the psychological impacts of the virus and how to address the general public’s anxiety and panic.

He said Italy, one of the worst affected countries so far, had put up “triage tents” to help facilitate the demands of the virus, adding that there was “a lot of learning” coming out of the outbreak in terms of preparedness.

“In many ways, what Covid has done is expose the fragility of preparedness plans in some systems,” he said. “I don’t think there is anywhere that is perfect… but there is huge learning around how we need to improve preparedness for the future as well.”

In recent weeks, the WHO has signalled the effectiveness of “international solidarity” to ensure efforts against Covid-19 are “harmonised”.

Mr Catton said the ICN supported the WHO’s message and explained that, when broken down, this simply meant “working together, co-operating, sharing advice, sharing information and helping with the flow of PPE, for example”.

The supply of PPE has been an ongoing problem throughout many countries during the pandemic, including the UK.

 

Issues around a lack of supply were first flagged at the end of January by Mr Catton, who noted that nurses in China were “having to use supplies for a longer period of time than they would ideally have liked to”.

Since then, the UK government has been racing to secure enough equipment to protect its frontline staff and delivered millions of items throughout England with the support of the army during March.

While efforts in England have been ramped up, Mr Catton said that the supply of PPE remained one of his biggest concerns globally, though he noted that Japan and Germany “in particular” were helping with the flow of supplies to those countries in need.

Another main concern for Mr Catton was around health worker infections, which he noted was “related to the supply of PPE”.

“I am worried about health worker infections, exposures and in the worst and tragic consequences of what that can be,” he said.

Last month, Nursing Times reported on nurse deaths in Iran, Indonesia and Spain and that latest figures from Italy showed 9% of the country’s Covid-19 cases were among healthcare workers.

At the time, Mr Catton renewed his call on behalf of the ICN for urgent action to ensure sufficient supplies of PPE reach frontline nurses.

In his interview with Nursing Times, he said: “From what I hear and see, the level of health worker infection is related to supply of PPE. If you haven’t got the appropriate equipment you are at greater risk of getting infection.”

He stressed that some nurses had already “paid the ultimate price for caring for people” and that “better data and information” on health worker infections was needed.

In addition, Mr Catton highlighted that discussions were also underway on how to “sustain the health workforce going forward”, as the number of cases across the globe continued to rise.

He asked: “If more health workers get sick, if demands and numbers of sufferers are going up, have we got enough people, are they in the right place, how are they trained, how are they supported as well?”

He stressed that he was concerned about the impact the pandemic was having on nurses and warned there was a risk the healthcare workforce would become exhausted.

“We need to put nurses right at the centre of our planning and of the support we are providing,” said Mr Catton.

Aside from the challenges around PPE, he said nurses were also suffering from issues around breaks, psychological support and financial compensation for the hours they worked.

He also warned of the need for ongoing support once the crisis was over, due to its the “pressures and demands”.

“There is work and thinking that we need to do about supporting people who have gone through this experience,” he said.

Meanwhile, he suggested the profile of nurse leadership had improved as a consequence of the pandemic and that nursing had gained more seats at the “top table”.

Countries were listening to nursing input at a senior level to help with the response and inform policies, he said.

For example, he cited Taiwan, where “nurses were very deeply involved at a top level in terms of putting the preparedness and the response plans together and in place”.

One of Mr Catton’s ongoing ambitions was for every government in the world to have an executive chief nursing officer advising their teams.

He noted the ICN had already been arguing for this, as well as nurses to be in senior positions and for the nursing voice to be heard across the globe.

“One of the things coming out of this crisis is that, for so many countries, that absolutely is happening, because they recognise that they need the important advice and support from the nursing community,” he said.

Mr Catton added that the contribution of nurse leaders, who were “providing critical advice and input at a policy and senior level” during the coronavirus crisis, reinforced the case for all countries to have this kind of nursing leadership and involvement.

Overall, Mr Catton said the work of nurses around the world “has been phenomenal”. “People talk about how these sorts of moments in our history could be a watershed or game-changing,” he said.

“If it could really see a fundamental change in terms of health sitting at the centre of how governments and countries work and think – in terms of their investment in health and sustaining longer-term and commitment – then that could be a good thing.”

Источник: Nursing Times
https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/leadership-news/worlds-nurses-are-stepping-up-to-covid-19-crisis-says-icn-chief-02-04-2020/?fbclid=IwAR2gHr2W-s_VAzYRBUPd0ewRiuqZ-zRlr9qXlrjK1nb3KZufOYv7Cps0Jn4