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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nursing Profession
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The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nursing Profession
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Patients
COVID-19 is one of the healthcare pandemics that strongly affected how families,
patients, and communities interrelate. The COVID-19 pandemic affected patients in several ways.
One of the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the patient includes the disruption
seen in the care delivery for existing chronic conditions and illnesses. Isasi et al. (2021) reported
that physical and behavioral health impacts and potential long-term effects of the Corona virus to
the patients are experienced. A disproportionate number of the corona virus infection alongside
adverse impacts for the marginalized groups in the community is also a significant impact of the
COVID-19. For instance, the people living in rural areas found it difficult to access critical care
services when affected by the Corona virus as a result of communication and transportation
challenges. As a result, most of the patients showed up to access care during the time when the
condition had seriously advanced, thus putting the health and life at risk mostly due to breathing
difficulties.
How the Pandemic Affected Nursing Care
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected nursing care. The Coronavirus period
exposed many nurses to burnout, moral injury, and exhaustion which prompted most of them to
leave their position as a result of crushing stress arising from patient surges (Kelly et al., 2021).
Most of the nurses whom I interacted with during this time recorded high levels of depressive
symptoms with some of them indicating tiredness alongside general anxiety as some of the
significant factors degrading their morale. The surges in the patient volume level alongside
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shortages in the PPE equipment and regulation that focused on keeping families apart particularly
in end-of-life situations mainly caused secondary trauma and moral injury among most nurses
which encouraged most of them to quit their position to achieve a positive mental health.
The COVID-19 pandemic also negatively influenced nursing care by resulting in huge
numbers of layoffs or furloughed. After the COVID-19, thousands of nursing professionals
experienced reduced working hours with others being cut all together. In New York epicenter lack
of nurses for the experience well in other States such as in Massachusetts most were laid off or
furloughed. This situation was mainly as a result of the lockdown measures put in place later in
March 2020 which further shutdown ambulatory and outpatient facilities while canceling cases of
elective surgeries Forcing the closure of most surgical centers (Kelly et al., 2021). Notably, the
members of the public only accept medical care in the events when an absolute emergency was
necessary which prompted the development of a deficit in the need for healthcare away from the
COVID-19 units. Although some nurses traveled to regions that required additional staff, it is still
apparent that some were unable to leave their families and home and sought employment
opportunities in areas that were strongly hit by the pandemic. The outcome is that most nurses
experienced emotional and financial difficulties which mainly affected their nursing care
capabilities (Kelly et al., 2021).
Impact of the Pandemic on Retention
The pandemic negatively influenced nursing retention rate. This is mainly reflected by the
high element of nursing layoff as illustrated in the previous section. This negatively influenced
team dynamics as most nurses indicated lack of job satisfaction due to the high element of
burnout experienced as a result of nursing shortage. Lack of job satisfaction means that the nurses
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lack the required morale to accomplish their nursing care duties while in the care environment,
thus suggesting poor patient care.
Observation and Experiences
While in the clinical environment, I observed that most nurses recorded a high burnout
level with a decreased morale. I also observed that lack of PPE was one of the factors which
contributed towards the negative impact reflected by the nurses during the time of the pandemic.
Most of the nurses showed signs of betrayal by those in the management position in that they felt
that their safety was not prioritized even as they interacted with high-risk patients at the time
despite being loaded as heroes. As a result, most of the nurses opted to retire, resign, or leave the
profession which played an effective role in contributing towards the higher rate of nursing
shortages.
The Future Competencies Nurse
The future competencies nurse will mainly focus on the delivery of patient-centered care
services Through the provision of holistic care which mainly recognizes the individual values,
preferences, respect, and as a full partner when it comes to the delivery of coordinated,
compassionate, culturally appropriate, effective, and safe care (Kelly et al., 2021). Unlike in the
case of the pandemic period, the future nurse will mainly be focused on teamwork and
collaboration as a means of delivering an effective form of care to the patients. Notably, the nurse
of the future with mainly engage in effective functioning while relying on the effort of
interdisciplinary teams providing mutual development and respect for each other and taking part
in a shared decision-making process even when faced with the similar scenarios to the COVID-19
and they make time to deliver a high-quality patient care (Isasi et al., 2021).
Influence on Quality Improvement Initiatives
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An enhancement on quality improvement initiatives was seen during the time of the
COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the quality improvement task force available at Cleveland
Clinic came up with several measures focused on guiding the process of caring for the patient
suspected or confirmed to be Coronavirus positive. This entailed increasing the task forces to
come up with effective protocols for patient transport and the use of personal protective
equipment and medications which were in short supply. Cost control measures were also
enhanced as a means of quality improvement whereby the people who are required to observe
social distancing and the nursing professionals had an obligation of using PPE whenever
interacting with the patients and their peers in the workplace (Buchan et al., 2022). The major
focus was to reduce the spread of the virus after it was established to be airborne. The Cleveland
clinic also established enterprise-wide policies focused on enhancing quality by postponing any
form of non-essential surgery to cut down on the number of intensive care unit on site patient and
also established a web-based COVID-19 toolkit where all the caregivers could provide
recommendations about international and national societies decisions and recent developments
associated with the virus.
The provision of a supportive work environment is one of the key considerations provided
to ensure increased nursing retention rates. Notably, burnout and decreased nursing morale is one
of the fundamental factors that prompted most nurses to quit their jobs or resign from their
positions to enjoy a positive mental health. Training and Development is also a significant
strategy which has been undertaken to increase the nursing retention rates (Buchan et al., 2022).
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References
Buchan, J., Catton, H., & Shaffer, F. (2022.). Sustain and retain in 2022 and beyond. ICN.
Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.icn.ch/node/1463
Isasi, F., Naylor, M. D., Skorton, D., Grabowski, D. C., Hernández, S., & Rice, V. M. (2021).
Patients, Families, and Communities COVID-19 Impact Assessment: Lessons Learned
and Compelling Needs. NAM perspectives, 2021, 10.31478/202111c.
https://doi.org/10.31478/202111c
Kelly, L. A., Gee, P. M., & Butler, R. J. (2021). Impact of nurse burnout on organizational and
position turnover. Nursing outlook, 69(1), 96–102.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.06.008
