Nurses need psycho- social support to deal with traumatic effects of COVID- 19

This week Wednesday, the international community celebrated the International Nurses Day.

The day is observed around the world on 12 May to commemorate nurses and the nursing profession globally.

The day also happens to be the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, an English nurse who was also a social reformer and a statistician.

Nightingale is globally acclaimed as the founder of modern nursing. The International Council of Nurses ( ICN) celebrated the day for the first time in 1965 and in 1974; May 12 was chosen to celebrate the day, as it is the birth anniversary of Nightingale.

The theme for this year’s International Nurses Day is, Nurses: A Voice to Lead- A Vision for future healthcare. Since last year we have witnessed COVID- 19 causing devastation across the globe, and thus the International Nurses Day has greater significance than ever before because of the pandemic.

Since the outbreak of COVID- 19, the world has witnessed over 160 million cases and over 3.3 million deaths. Botswana has registered close to 50 000 cases and 750 deaths.

The pandemic has burdened our health systems more than ever, and health workers — doctors, nurses and others — have been at the forefront fighting the virus and saving lives. This is commendable as many are risking their lives. Many health workers contracted the virus in the line of duty. The International Council of Nurses reveals that more than 1.6 million health workers in 34 countries were infected by COVID- 19 as of 31st December 2020. A new report released by the ICN underlines that nursing has been at the heart of the response to the COVID pandemic. The report reveals that the pandemic has highlighted that it has been nurses who have been leading the response, with 90 percent of care undertaken by them, and it is nurses who have seen at close quarters the weaknesses, the fragilities and the fault- lines that must be addressed for the design of future healthcare systems.

The ICN therefore called for the inclusion of nurses as architects and designers of future healthcare systems, and not only the deliverers of care.

Here at home, Botswana Nurses Union also joined the commemoration by bringing to the fore, some of the critical challenges that the nursing profession and health sector general face. The need for better pay for nurses; decent housing and accommodation; specialised training in the areas of paediatrics, oncology and after- care; psychosocial support for this cadre in light of the traumatic effects of Covid- 19; renewal of contracts for Covid nurses or better still, large- scale employment of nurses across the country to reduce the long queues that form in clinics and hospitals.

We cannot overemphasise the central role that nurses play in the medical profession and for these reasons, urge both public and private sector employers to do the needful for this special cadre of the health sector.