2020 is the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, a time set aside by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Council of Nurses (ICN), Nursing Now, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to honor the work done by those essential health professionals.
Yet 2020 has also become, unmistakably, the Year of COVID-19. In just months, the new coronavirus has overturned not only global healthcare but life itself. The health community and most governments are now in crisis mode, with most scrambling to prepare additional beds and postpone non-essential surgeries in anticipate of a dramatic increase in patient loads in the weeks and months to come. Others still are already overwhelmed by surges in infections in certain communities.
The current crisis sheds new light on the importance of the Year of the Nurse. The clinicians and nurses treating COVID-19 patients currently do their job at tremendous risk and under unnerving pressure. By exposing themselves to a new, little-understood virus for which no proven treatment currently exists, they face consequences ranging from extended quarantines to severe risks to their own health.
Supporting the Year of the Nurse by Staying at Home
It’s no surprise, then, that there’s a growing demand for nurses and clinicians qualified to combat the virus on the front lines, as well as an appreciation for the bravery of those who are choosing to do so. As the WHO estimates that as many as 50% of all healthcare workers are nurses or midwives who work, as always, as the front lines of medical care, it’s all the more fitting a time to honor them.
We’re proud to join these efforts to honor the Year of the Nurse and share in the recognition that, during even normal times, their jobs are enormously difficult and perilous. But given the new complications of the COVID-19, the work that nurses do is all the more impactful — and their ability to do it has become essential to protect at all costs.
In these difficult times, staffing providers have been urged to provide nurses with full life and health insurance, heightened levels of protection against infectious diseases and compensation in the event of a quarantine. Important for peace of mind at any time, this added level of protection give nurses the confidence to dedicate themselves to their work without distraction and unnecessary worries.
It also includes bolstering the voices of the clinicians who are working so hard to contain COVID-19 and help to guide the affected areas back to good health. To that end, the Year of the Nurse will also be remembered as a year of global lockdowns, with citizens encouraged to stay at home to help prevent the spread of the virus and risk overwhelming the already-strapped frontline health workers.
“Physical distancing and staying at home are the key to slowing the spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to give physicians, nurses and everyone on the front lines a fighting chance at having the equipment, time and resources necessary to take on this immense challenge,” according to a letter from the American Medical Association (AMA).
“We’ll stay here for you. Stay home for us.”
Thanking the World’s Hard-Working Nurses, and Those Who Put Them to Work
From cervical cancer screening in the United Kingdom to HPV vaccinations in Guatemala, the WHO’s Year of the Nurse celebrates the global work that nurses and midwives do. And in what’s become the year of COVID-19, this may well prove to be a time when the world’s need for nurses is more dramatic than ever before.
Here at CareerStaff, we want to echo this important message by helping to remind Americans of the essential work nurses do every day. To help bring that point home, we’re also actively working to connect nurses in diverse parts of the country with facilities that badly need them.
We’re committed to helping ensure that the residents of America’s neediest communities can continue to receive essential care and services, not just during the COVID-19 pandemic but throughout the year. Contact us now to learn more, or request nurse staffing via our online form.