How Has the Recent COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Nurses in the U.S?
Introduction
Since its outbreak in Wuhan, China, in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a threat to global economic stability and health. It has dramatically affected the operations of different governments and societies. COVID-19 is a deadly infectious coronavirus disease and spreads very fast. In January 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 causative agent was identified as a novel coronavirus. Elderly individuals and those suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases are more vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus. However, the fast and drastic spread of COVID-19 has led to difficulties and negative impacts in the healthcare systems of the United States. Nurses have played a role in the healthcare systems, controlling the spread of coronavirus. The pandemic has called attention to ruptures in healthcare delivery systems in response to disaster management. According to Schutz and Shattell (2020), research documents have shown that there have been high incidences of COVID-19 infections and deaths among healthcare workers, including nurses and midwives. Moreover, the emergence of COVID-19 has exerted pressure on the U.S healthcare systems. It has shown many challenges to the nursing workforce, thereby affecting their performance, mental health, and their lives at risk.
Despite the efforts to reduce the spread of the virus from patients to nurses, this has not been successful due to a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). However, nurses have been on the front line by providing complete health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This indicated the sense and level of commitment to fighting against the pandemic regardless of PPE shortage (Khanlou & Orazietti, 2020). Putting in mind that nursing is the crucial profession that deals with disease prevention, including coronavirus, nurses have been at high risks of exposure to the virus, developing the symptoms as well. The question here is, how has the recent COVID-19 pandemic affected nurses in the United States? In this study, we will be discussing the impacts the coronavirus has had on nurses (Sheraton et al., 2020). The virus has affected nurses’ and midwives’ mental health and has had psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, occupational stress, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This has led to hopelessness among the nurses questioning their capacity to deliver services to the state. COVID-19 has affected U.S nurses both physically and mentally, and therefore this paper addresses the impacts of the coronavirus on their physical and mental health in society.
Impacts of COVID-19 on Nurses
First, the emotional well-being of nurses has been challenged like never before by COVID-19. The outbreak of this pandemic has led to anxiety problems among the nurses. Defined as “a sense of concern, uneasiness against the anticipation of a perceived threatening situation or event,” anxiety has directly affected healthcare workers who are involved in taking care of affected patients. Furthermore, nurses have been exposed to traumatic events due to direct contact with patients, and the sufferings and mortality rates have amplified their anxiety and fear (Marshall, 2020). Recent reports show that nurses have experienced the highest prevalence and anxiety levels among healthcare workers ranging from 20% to 95%. Anxiety from nurses has been induced by the fear of being infected and infecting others unknowingly. Nurses have been spending a lot of hours caring for patients with the fear of contracting the virus. Due to anxiety, nurses have been forced to separate from their families, their loved ones fearing to infect them. This has greatly affected them both mentally and financially. Their children have suffered a lack of maximum parental care since the nurses have minimized their interacting time with their families (Al Thobaity, 2020). However, this is just one way of preventing vulnerability of the virus to their families due to anxiety experience.
Since nurses are on the frontline in managing and handling COVID-19 patients, the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) has increased infection rates among the nurses (Buheji & Buhaid, 2020). Lack of access to coronavirus testing, fear of transmitting and harboring the novel coronavirus novel at work, lack of access to childcare facilities, the fear of being deployed, and doubts that the healthcare institution would support them have contributed to the prevalence of anxiety among the nurses. On the other hand, high anxiety levels have been associated with stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, impairment in body functions, and increased abuse of drug substances. Nurses in the U.S have experienced psychological changes in anxiety and nervousness; this has affected their capacity to deliver services to the COVID-19 patients (Saseedharan et al., 2020). This is due to the nurses’ unstable mental health affecting performance and job satisfaction, leading to frequent absenteeism, burnouts, and turnover.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected the routine duties of nurses, primarily in emergency and critical care nursing. This has been stimulated by shortage of nursing experts and personnel in the healthcare systems of the United States. This has led to difficulties in healthcare systems as shifting nurses has been hectic and work tirelessly and overtime handling the COVID-19 patients. Also, this has been caused by high levels of anxiety among the nurses and lack of personal protective equipment in healthcare systems. This has led to a shortage of labor as the rate of employee turnover is high. Their healthcare systems in the U.S have experienced an unpredicted nursing shortage, with veteran nurses opting for departure since they are among the vulnerable population members to coronavirus. This has raised concern as nurses were considered “a recession-proof profession,” but now the pandemic has changed the situation since most nurses, regardless of their experience, age, are quitting the profession as a remedy to managing their well-being, health, and stress. However, this stands to prevail since the U.S government has not yet established and invested in mental healthcare to handle the psychological distress exerted on the healthcare works.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nurses and midwives in offering services in perinatal healthcare. As far as coronavirus is concerned, it is essential to avoid close contact with coronavirus patients. However, this has led to difficulties in perinatal care as pregnant women have experienced restrictions on ambulance services during labor, doula services, and giving birth without the help of nurses. However, this has forced midwives and nurses to integrate healthcare between the homes and hospitals to handle childbearing needs to improve the outcomes. In addition, nurses have experienced difficulties in communicating crucial statistical data. There must be an informed proper flow and reporting of data since the pandemic situation has worsened.
However, the pandemic has also affected the nurses positively in shifting nursing workforce needs. The nurses, especially those in practice, need intensive education and training on the coronavirus pandemic to increase the prevention methods and acquire more competence in the infection and surveillance of the pandemic. Besides, there have been dramatic changes in the curriculum to train nurses on disaster management and preparedness and personal protective equipment (Gelinas, 2020). The pandemic period has been “the best of times and the worst of time. Age of wisdom.” Nurses, midwives, and other healthcare workers have gained knowledge through education programs and have acquired skills and knowledge to help them fight against the pandemic.
Conclusion
Nurses, midwives, physicians, among other healthcare workers, have faced many challenges ever since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. They have shown their high levels of commitment as they have played significant roles in controlling the spread of coronavirus. Also, nurses are considered as “heroes” as they address how societal imbalances disseminate different impacts on health. However, there is a need for the U.S government to implement intervention ways to help nurses cope up with the problems they experience during this pandemic. The nursing sector should expand for integrating programs and services in prenatal healthcare. This will help improve the perinatal outcomes and childbearing processes.
On the other hand, nurses, especially those with minimal experience in handling patients, should be trained on using personal protective equipment and applying them in the medical treatment of the COVID-19 patients. This will help them protect against being infected by the virus, hence improving their mental and physical health. Nurse Managers should also address the anxiety and fears developed by nurses in this pandemic period. It could be achieved by supporting their psychological, mental, and emotional health to promote nursing workforce sustainability. Furthermore, there is a need to venture into market research to identify the current situation of U.S nurses during the pandemic (Rosa et al., 2020). It will help protect the nursing profession by controlling pandemic emergencies in health sectors (Hartnett et al., 2020). Psychological and mental well-being and management of stress are essential; just like physical health and nurses, mental health should be addressed to ensure the well-being of these healthcare workers.
