REMEMBERING OUR COLLEAGUES
Sometimes being a nursing advocate is rewarding and motivating. Sometimes it is frustrating and difficult. This year, however, it has been heartbreaking. Nursing is consistently the most trusted profession for a reason. [https://nurse.org/articles/nursing-ranked-most-honest-profession/] 2020, the “Year of the Nurse” showed nurses from all over the country volunteering to travel to COVID epicenters. They provided their skills in the hotspots and I want to thank those who came to help in New York. Now that the entire country is experiencing outbreaks, hospitals are full and nurses are overwhelmed in their own states. They have been fighting this pandemic since March and they are physically and emotionally exhausted. They have consistently been at risk from the lack of PPE and insufficient staffing. Consequently, they are getting sick and dying. Nursing has lost the talents, commitment, skill, and experience of far too many dedicated professionals. The ICN notes that globally, we have lost more nurses to this virus than in the first world war. [https://www.icn.ch/news/icn-confirms-1500-nurses-have-died-covid-19-44-countries-and-estimates-healthcare-worker-covid] Year’s end is normally a time to take stock and honor those who have been lost. This year, that includes more than 1,000 nurses who have died from the Coronavirus. [https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-covid-nurse-deaths-thousands-federation.html] As we enter the holidays, I am thinking of the loved ones and colleagues left behind to grieve such terrible loss. They were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, neighbors, co-workers, friends. They were young, old, all ethnicities, from all states, in all clinical specialties. And we have lost them all forever. Take the time to honor them. Read the names. See the faces. Then hold your loved ones closer as you remember them. Here are just a few. http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/nurse-judy-wilson-griffin-is-first-covid%20--%20death-in/article_1d422bea-6b06-11ea-83e1-17bbd703c8fb.html https://khn.org/news/lost-on-the-frontline-health-care-worker-death-toll-covid19-coronavirus/https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85867https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2020/04/04/coronavirus-michigan-nurses-die/2943336001/?fbclid=IwAR3pXZJNk3gkmU0rcl3d0AnYTrp9g3irnUCfQ68y9rZNKBQznJAG-odT9vAhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-ernesto-deleonhttps://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=renee-marie-french&pid=196348293https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-100-dead-healthcare-workers-20200918-dmclrrdlb5bvxg56tdremsbclu-story.htmlhttps://www.kristv.com/ray-grad-dies-of-covid-19-in-nevada?fbclid=IwAR05AKafD1kOMJxeI1RWwHs1rPPUi9OMf1JEXX1GkLY91n2ah7zjFKzwMV4https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/coronavirus/article_c2b7dd12-96e0-11ea-9ff8-9ff8faef31c2.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/aug/11/lost-on-the-frontline-covid-19-coronavirus-us-healthcare-workers-deaths-databasehttps://www.icn.ch/news/icn-confirms-1500-nurses-have-died-covid-19-44-countries-and-estimates-healthcare-worker-covidhttps://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927976https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/obituaries/jeannette-williams-parker-dead-coronavirus.html
|