Leadership Learning Experience Paper

Leadership Learning Experience Paper

Nursing is a calling and glue that holds the health care journey of a patient together. Throughout patient experience in a hospital, nurses work passionately and tirelessly to identify and safeguard the needs of the person (American Nurses Association, 2020). However, in the process of caring for the patients, nurses sometimes expose themselves to risk that sometimes lead to death. Such cases normally happen when there is a new disease outbreak that requires new approaches and measures to handle that nurses are not familiar with or are not used in relation to other health conditions. A good case example is the current outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that has put the lives of health workers in danger, not just in the US but also the world at large. Presently, the US has more than 10,000 healthcare workers infected with covid-19 and about 30 deaths (Farmer, 2020). The situation is even worse in Europe and Asia, where tens of thousands of medical practitioners have been infected with coronavirus, and hundreds lost their lives on the line of duty. According to the Future of Nursing, there is a need for the roles, responsibilities, and education of nurses to be modified to meet the increased demand for care that satisfies the needs of patients and protects healthcare workers against harm.

Identified Issue Related to Education – Nurses Sickened by Covid-19

The issue identified is nurses getting sick on the line of duty and some losing their lives in the process. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a standstill with all major events in politics, courts, sports, entertainment, and business suspended (Pellis et al., 2020). The more the numbers of cases are reported in the US, the more the nurses and doctors are called to action. Unfortunately, the more the nurses commit themselves to care for covid-19 patients, the more they are exposed to the risk of infection. As of April 15, at least 9,300 healthcare workers had contracted covid-19, with 27 deaths reported (Farmer, 2020). Note that these healthcare workers went through thorough education and were certified as registered nurses. They have knowledge and skills to handle patients with all conditions, including infectious diseases. However, Covid-19 is a new calamity in the world that has posed major challenges to healthcare workers. The huge number of infections clearly shows that this condition requires extra care that nurses in the country should be taught. This problem is associated with the area of practice I have chosen, which is education. In line with the education offered under The Future of Nursing, I propose to solve the problem of sickening nurses through education and empowerment programs that aim to increase their awareness of protective measures against covid-19.

Investigation of the Problem

Before a nurse reaches the level to be called a registered nurse (RN) or advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), they go through rigorous training and education in all areas of patient care including counseling, administering medication, examining patients, diagnosing patients, and even treating patients (ANA, 2020). Most licensed nurses (APRNs) know how to perform midwife duty and even undertake gynecological duties. Therefore, such nurses have sufficient knowledge and skills to protect themselves when caring for patients and to offer utmost care to patients until they recover.

However, this education seems not to be enough to ensure their safety during this pandemic time when most of them are getting an infection on the line of duty. From the assessment of key organizational statistics, it is evident that the coronavirus pandemic is putting the lives of healthcare workers at risk, with some losing their lives. For example, according to statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020), at least 9,300 frontline health care workers in the US have contracted Covid-19. At the same time, at least 27 of them have lost their lives in the process (Farmer, 2020). As many as 5% of the health care workers who tested positive required intensive care with the majority of those who died being 65 years or older. The huge number of infections among health care workers clearly indicates that they are not doing enough to protect themselves. Therefore, there is a need for retraining and empowerment on how to protect them against covid-19 to prevent further infections and deaths.

State of the Situation

The majority of the reported cases of infections among healthcare workers occurred when they were attending to patients. According to the CDC report, over 55% of healthcare workers who tested positive believe they were exposed to covid-19 while attending to diagnosed patients (CDC, 2020). The major contributing factor that leads to many healthcare workers being infected is the lack of sufficient knowledge on how to keep themselves safe, especially when they are fatigued. In most cases, healthcare workers are overstretched since they are forced to work for long hours that make them experience occupational burnout (International Labour Organization, 2020). Most of them were not used to such routines, and they feel overwhelmed after working for 24hours. When they experience occupational burnout and still on duty, they tend to lose concentration, which makes them vulnerable to pathogens that originate from the covid-19 patients they handle. In other words, when nurses overwork, they lose focus and forget that they are exposed to pathogens from the covid-19 patients, and that is when most of them contract the virus. Presently, most countries, especially in Europe, are facing a shortage of healthcare workers because a huge percentage of them are infected while others lost their lives to covid-19 (International Labour Organization, 2020). Therefore, the lack of knowledge on what to do when nurses experience occupational burnout contributes immensely to the current state of the situation.

The solution to the Issue of Sickening Nurses

The best solution to this problem would be to ask nurses to stay at home where they are not exposed to hazards such as long working hours, pathogen exposure, fatigue, psychological distress, occupational burnout, stigma, and psychological violence (WHO, 2020). However, as I mentioned at the beginning, nursing is a calling that requires commitment and determination, no matter what happens. In fact, their services are needed now more than ever despite the fact that there is a shortage of nurses at the front line of a covid-19 pandemic. With that in mind, the best solution that can lead to positive results and a reduction in infections among healthcare workers is an improved educational approach (Palatnik, 2016). The education should aim to empower them on how to overcome occupational burnout, psychological distress, and fatigue that result from long working hours.

According to the Future of Nursing, education needs to change significantly to meet the increasing demand for care (Palatnik, 2016). In this case, the demand is even high and challenging, which means that the education should not be the normal one often undertaken by the American Nurses Association and other bodies such as NCSBN. First, to maintain social distancing, the training should be done via the Internet through platforms such as Hangout, Skype, Video Conferencing, YouTube Recording, and/or information on the nurse websites. Second, the training should be more of a motivational talk than empowerment because most nurses are on the verge of giving up due to long working hours and occupational burnout that they are not used to.

Third, the American Nurses Association should compel the department of health at both state and federal levels to set aside some funds to act as a welfare package for nurses to motive them to keep on pushing hard during this trying time. What nurses need now is just motivation and impetus to spur the inner drive giving an extra push beyond the normal (Borter, 2020). Moreover, the government, through the department of health at both state and federal levels, needs to hire more registered nurses to reduce the long working hours for the current team of nurses. Lastly, the government at both state and federal levels needs to increase protective gear to the health care workers to keep them safe as they work exceptionally to manage covid-19.

Recommended Resources

For this solution to succeed, there are a few resources that must be involved. First, money must be involved where the government needs to release a certain amount to apply as a welfare package for healthcare workers to motivate them to stretch beyond the normal. In addition to their normal salary, healthcare workers need extra money to motivate them to put in extra effort and work for long hours without burning out. Second, there is a need to increase protective gear, which the government should facilitate through the department of health. No healthcare worker would want to expose themselves to covid-19, which means that the government should provide protective gear to enable these workers to attend to their duties without fear.

Third, the American Nursing Association needs to facilitate the online meeting or video conference by organizing the number of nurses to attend at any given time and then provide the resources they require. If the conference will be held via Skype, the leadership of the Association needs to provide webcams and headphones to nurses who do not have them to ensure they attend the meeting. Similarly, the same approach can be made through local media, where the head of ANA gives a motivational speech to nurses to give them the morale to continue pushing despite the challenges. Lastly, human resources are required immensely, where new registered nurses should be hired to support the available nurses. Additional nurses would help reduce the issues of workload, long working hours, occupational burnout, and psychological distress that lead to loss of concentration and eventual contraction of covid-19.

Timeline for Implementation

Matters covid-19 must be addressed urgently because more people continue to contract the virus and more continue to die. An urgent solution needs to be realized to save lives, which means that the suggested solution should be implemented immediately. Fortunately, all the mentioned elements can be implemented concurrently, and for that matter, the whole process should not take more than one month. At the moment, the number of infected people is more than half a million, and the number of deaths is beyond 23,000. At the same time, the number of healthcare workers infected is almost 10, 000 with the death toll rising too. Therefore, the following timeline should apply to make sure the solution is implemented within a month.

Note that all these resources should be implemented concurrently to make it a total of 30 days beginning with the most urgent – additional protective gear.

Significance of Each Stakeholder

The covid-19 pandemic is a national problem that requires input from all the stakeholders. They include the department of health officials, the federal government led by the President, state governments, and health care bodies in the country, doctors and nurses on the front line, covid-19 patients, and civilians. Some of the key healthcare bodies/organizations/agencies that must be involved American Nurses Association, American Doctors Association, CDC officials, WHO representatives in the country, NCSBN, and medical research agencies, among others. This will help to bring together all the key individuals involved in healthcare directly or indirectly to work towards managing covid-19 in the country.

However, in this case, only a few stakeholders are involved – doctors and nurses, state and federal governments, nurses and doctors, and associations of doctors and nurses. My engagement with healthcare workers would be to encourage and motivate them to keep on pushing because we can overcome covid-19 if we work together and give an extra push. I would also empower them to be vigilant after working for 15 years because from that time is when most of them lose concentration and tend to contract the virus from infected patients. I understand that they might not take me seriously because I am not a popular person in the country. Nevertheless, I intend to reach out to them through healthcare associations – ANA and ADA. Nurses and doctors often listen to the leadership of these associations, and once I convince ANA and ADA on these solutions, they will share the same with healthcare workers, and my message will be home. I intend to reach out to these associations via email and phone to set up an appointment with them so that I can share the proposal with them. These associations will also be significant in communicating with the state and federal governments and help implement the proposal.

Implementation

The implementation of the proposed solution will majorly depend on the two associations that I intend to approach. Assuming that they accept the proposal, then the implementation will begin by ordering more protective gear for the healthcare workers. The second step will be to record a video clip and send it to all the websites and WhatsApp groups for nurses in the country. The same will be shared through local media stations and all social media platforms to make sure all nurses and doctors are reached. I will convince the Associations to persuade the President and the head of the department of health to record the same motivational clips and share with health care workers throughout the country to let them know that the country loves them, cares for them, and is fully behind them. The department of health will help to push the state and federal governments to initiate a healthcare workers’ welfare package that they will be receiving alongside their salaries until covid-19 is managed and eliminated completely.

The government should also be compelled to recruit more nurses and doctors to manage this pandemic. Once ANA and ADA accept the proposed solution, they must ensure that it is implemented to completion. Therefore, it should push all the four elements to make sure healthcare workers are safe and determined to combat covid-19 to the end. The evaluation process will be easy since covid-19 statistics are already in the public domain. Once the solution is implemented, the public will see the figures reducing, especially in regards to cases and deaths involving healthcare workers. In fact, after implementing the proposed solution, new infections involving healthcare workers should reduce by at least 70% to prove that, indeed, the solution worked.

Fulfillment of Roles

As a scientist, I managed to conduct the process of investigation by conducting thorough research and integrating evidence at all stages. Scientists normally work with evidence to support their work and prove that, indeed, their findings matter. In this case, I conducted research by examining evidence of how many healthcare workers have contracted covid-19 and how many have lost their lives on the line of duty. I also conducted research to see how education under the umbrella of the Future of Nursing would help resolve the problem of sickened nurses handling covid-19 patients. I fulfilled the role of a detective by investigating the problem and solution that is consistent with health guidelines stipulated by the American Nursing Association. Detectives normally carry out criminal investigations under the law to make sure that all those who break the law are arrested and account for their unlawful behaviors. In this case, I made sure that the solution I come up with meets all the standards laid down by the department of health, and that promote a greater good for healthcare workers in the country.

As a manager of the healing environment, I was more concerned about nurses and doctors who work under me in the healing environment. If we lose all doctors and nurses to covid-19, I would have no one to manage. Therefore, I worked passionately to look for a probable solution that will not just keep them safe, but also ensure they are motivated enough to continue handling patients with covid-19 and eventually manage the pandemic.