Nurse leaders discuss COVID-19 nursing challenges, solutions

The fourth and current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a worrisome landscape for the nursing profession. Nurses across the country report that they no longer feel celebrated as heroes as they did in the early days of the pandemic. Hostile patients, vaccine distrust, staffing shortages and community indifference have been on the rise, making the job of treating and containing the coronavirus even more difficult. How can hospitals and health systems best support their nurses? What are some ways to reduce stress for frontline workers? And what can be learned from the current pandemic climate to help strengthen and fortify the profession moving forward? AHA Senior Communications Manager Ben Wise is joined by Patricia Quinn, a registered nurse and board certified nurse executive serving as director of Maternal Child Health as well as the nurse manager of neonatal ICU and pediatrics at Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Health – and AHA Board Member Mary Beth Kingston, PhD, Chief Nursing Officer at Advocate Aurora Health and an American Academy of Nursing fellow – to discuss the current landscape of the nursing profession.