One Step Closer to the End - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

This is the first week in many months that I have seen nurses smile when the press interviews them. Many had tears of joy in their eyes as they received their COVID vaccine. One nurse told a reporter, “I can keep doing this if I know I will be safe, and it is almost over.” Collectively, we all know that although the next 2-3 months will be very challenging – there is finally light at the end of this very dark tunnel. Nurses feel hopeful.

To make this work, nurses will be key in educating the public about the vaccine, especially in vulnerable communities. Aside from work on the vaccine, there are other things leaders need to think about now. Recovery from the trauma of COVID will not happen overnight. Critical to recovery will be a need to help staff process what has happened here. In his significant book Transformed by Trauma (I recommend all leaders read it), authors Richard Tedeschi and Bret Moore talk about how collective group recovery can happen after trauma. There are three key areas that nurse leaders need to consider as they move toward the end of COVID:

A Need to Recalibrate – collectively, how have our ideas about nursing changed due to the significant changes that have happened with this experience. What core beliefs have changed for our team?
A Need to Reframe – what has this pandemic taught us about ourselves that we did not know before? What is our authentic story about what happened here? How have we grown through this?
A Need to Reach Out and Help Others – one of the most effective ways of moving through trauma is to help others who have experienced it? Leaders should ask – what do our teams need now? What can we do to help our youngest nurses process what has happened here? What can we do to help prepare future nurses who may face a pandemic or other crisis?

Yes – we are one step closer to the end. The question now is what will we do next.

Read to Lead

Tedeschi RG, Moore BA. Transformed by Trauma: Stories of Post-Traumatic Growth. Boulder Press; 2020.

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