Regional Head Nursing- Kerala Cluster

Aster DM Healthcare

Introduction

There is no denial of the fact that COVID‐19 outbreak constitutes a massive health challenge to the nurses all around the world. Hostile patients, vaccine distrust, staffing shortages and community indifference have been on the rise, making the job of nurses more difficult. The crisis has challenged the nurse administrators to make decisions in an environment of conflicting data and directives, to implement novel care delivery plans in order to support an overwhelmed nursing system.

Lack of experienced nurses

Nurses will continue to be at the front line and ANA code of ethics notes that the sole responsibility of the nurse is toward the patient and have obligation to themselves and others. Their roles involve triaging patients, detecting suspected cases, clinical management of patient including primary care and acute care, role in screening and diagnosis, infection control, education, communication, psychological support and palliative care if necessary. Thus, nurses must be well equipped with essential knowledge and skills in managing crises. The  deficiency of  experienced nurses, lack of training  as well as high turnover among early-career nurses, have led to a widening skills gap, creating major implications for a healthcare system in need.

Global movement of nurses

Nurse turnover is a prevalent and serious issue in India, as nurses leave jobs to search for better opportunities outside the country. The core reasons are job dissatisfaction and insufficient opportunity for professional development. This highlighted staffing shortages especially during pandemic, it is a significant issue for nurse managers and frustrating as they have to develop new strategies to minimize staff turnover, continuous recruitment and training.

Nurses seeking alternative career opportunity

Nursing is an incredibly rewarding career  and an ever-evolving field that  offers  tremendous  career  opportunities other than  patient care role .As more nurses leave the workforce and pursue opportunities  in different  roles, patient care with no doubt suffer and global pandemic has only worsened problems. Nurse Managers are tasked with the near-impossible responsibility to ensure proper staffing in the unit.

Psychological and emotional threats faced by nurses

During the recent pandemic outbreak, an unprecedented number of nurses were infected and survivors of infectious diseases have higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. The social stigma and discrimination in the society adversely affected their wellbeing. Many left the job and some were unwilling to work for Covid positive patients. This complex situation necessitates the nurse leaders to initiate psychological first aid programs and stress management strategies for nurses.

Limited technological adaptation in healthcare

The COVID-19 epidemic poses an enormous challenge to the global health system that the health informatics community in India has laboriously taken action to influence health information technologies for epidemic monitoring, early warning, forestallment and control, and other tasks. Technologies employed include mobile and web-based services such as Internet hospitals and Web chat, big data analyses, cloud computing, telemedicine, telenursing etc. The skill gap among nurses to use technology necessitate nurse administrators to organize and implement training programmes for nurses.

Rise in home healthcare

Covid­19 has easily proven itself as a health care invention catalyst, buttressing the benefits and growth eventuality of the home healthcare industry. Home health is a preferred site of care among patients and providers during the pandemic as it offers a way to safely access and deliver health care. This changing trend left no choices for the nurse administrators to design and implement home health care training programme for nurses.

Need for further nursing research in COVID-19 Prevention and Management

Nurse leaders should identify the emerging need of research in order to develop strategic recommendations and to integrate new knowledge in the field of managing patient   affected with COVID -19, prevention and control, managing psychological distress and social burden and effective administrative strategies to cope up with crisis situation.

Dearths of Critical Inventories, Accoutrements, and Logistic Support 

Severe shortages of necessities have quickly became a major issue worldwide after the outbreak of COVID-19. Nurse administrators faced special challenges maintaining the supplies needed and restocking quickly when they ran out of supplies.

Conclusion

COVID‐19 pandemic had placed additional challenges on nursing administration and these are expected to persist in the future but with a lesser degree if innovative and creative ideas are applied.