“Nurses Week” During the COVID 19 Outbreak
Prof. Filiz Öğce, Dean of Faculty of Health Sciences, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), posted a message in observance of the “Nurses Week” by giving examples on the fight against coronavirus. Prof. Öğce stated the following in her message:
“While the World Health Organization (WHO) declared 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, surely, it did not predict the COVID 19 outbreak, however, its purpose was to recognize and showcase the work and contributions of nurses and midwives, whom are just as important as all healthcare professionals, to patients and to the health system, and to raise awareness.
As Ataturk quoted, “Those who don't know their past cannot have a future”, so let us remember how much importance we attach to this for our health: Although a century has passed over the outbreak called the Spanish flu, which occurred in three waves in 1918 and resulted in the death of at least 50 million people worldwide, we have regretfully witnessed how inadequate human beings have become on the last point in technology in the fight against viruses, while normally lifeless, come to life on the creature they have the power to terminate the life of. At the same time, we remember the price of underestimating the importance and value given to health with bitter news day by day. At the time of writing this article, COVID 19 outbreak was transmitted to more than three and a half million people in 185 countries, causing more than two hundred and fifty thousand deaths.
St. Louis city council, one of the places where the Spanish flu was intense, had taken the right quarantine measures in September 1918, however, due to early complacency, it abolished them in November causing increasing number of deaths due to the exacerbation of the outbreak. This event, called the ‘St. Louis complacency’ in history, should not be forgotten, and zero-tolerance approach should be taken to the outbreak by taking lessons.
The importance and respect that should be given to healthcare workers, as much as the importance of health, should not be forgotten. Along with the COVID 19 pandemic, the nursing profession, which is an important member of the healthcare team, came to the fore both in protecting health and providing treatment and care during the disease. In 1860, Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory defined Nursing as “the act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery.” This healing action is one of the rare professions that will progress by blending science and technology as long as human beings exist. Meanwhile, one issue that should not be compromised and tolerated is that nursing is a profession that should be gained with undergraduate education and crowned with postgraduate education.
Nursing is a separate discipline with its own branches, and it was once again understood how important intensive care nursing is in terms of knowledge, experience and responsibility in this epidemic. Similarly, nurses who receive evidence-based education in each field such as an emergency nurse, an operating room nurse, a psychiatric nurse, a child, a woman's health and public health, bring their own studies to science with a master's degree on top of undergraduate degree. We, as academicians, association managers and administrators of the nursing profession, watch with great sadness and worry, which are brought to the agenda in the press from time to time, that it will be sufficient to reduce this education to high school level or that it will make up for the nurse deficit; while the weight of loading the responsibility of patients / individuals to an age and maturity who cannot yet take their own responsibility creates a contradiction, the point reached with university education is unfortunately is being underestimated. Updating the knowledge gained through undergraduate education in the field of health, critical thinking, conducting research, and evidence-based practices should not be compromised.
WHO explained that at least 23,000 healthcare workers were infected in more than 50 countries during the course of the COVID 19 epidemic, however, reported there was no systematic record of infections and deaths, and number of nurses infected. In their statement, the International Council of Nurses-ICN indicated they asked for detailed information of the nurses who lost their lives during the fight against epidemic due to insufficient number of Personal Protective Equipment worldwide; that they did not intend to blame any country or administration politically, that they just needed this information to take necessary measures so they could continue. In the meantime, nurses and other healthcare professionals all over the world have been applauded for their sacrifices in the fight against the epidemic, and how much value was given to the health workforce took place in the press. However, it should not be forgotten that, all countries should look at their health systems honestly when applauses and praises stop.
Governments will have to make difficult decisions in financing some services due to the recession all over the world, however, this pandemic shows that healthcare funds are not luxurious and that world leaders must properly finance and support healthcare services.
Nurses, who take an active role in the front stage of the health army as a force multiplier, carry the responsibility of touching lives by sacrificing their lives, empathizing, showing compassion and care with their knowledge. They get in return the joy of the lives they touch. Happy May 12 Nurses Week to the whole health community.”
