By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
It is difficult to overestimate the sacrifices that have been made by nurses throughout the world during the COVID pandemic. Many nurse leaders worry that their nurses feel ignored, underappreciated, and somewhat invisible as the battle against COVID accelerates and cases increase. On a personal level, nurses are grateful for the vaccine and the protection that it offers them personally, but at the same time, nursing care has never been more challenging.
Much of what nurses love most about what they do has been taken away from them as they struggle to do more with less and watch helplessly as their patients die difficult deaths. Nurses in some states such as mine (Florida) drive home from work at night and see crowded bars with unmasked patrons. This comes after a shift of desperately trying to save the growing numbers of COVID patients. It all seems very surreal, and many nurses have told me that they feel like they live in an alternate universe to that of their families and friends.
With this as a backdrop, the Daisy Foundation has taken the step of running billboards (with corporate advertising support) across the United States to urge the public to nominate a nurse who has helped either them or a family member for the Daisy award. This initiative launched this weekend with a billboard in Times Square (see attached photo) is an important step in the healing process. We know from Dr. Marty Seligman’s work at the Penn Resilience Project that the stories we tell ourselves about what is happening play a key role in our ability to be resilient when facing trauma.
Today, many nurses focus on what they cannot provide to their patients, including visits with family members and more time at the bedside. Moral distress about this is building. The Daisy Initiative offers the opportunity for patients and their families to tell a different part of the story – the herculean efforts of many nurses to keep their patients hopeful and their families connected.
The pot banging, the food deliveries, and fire truck salutes are a thing of the past in most areas. Nurses are struggling to make sense of what is happening. This initiative by the Daisy Foundation and corporate foundations is both powerful and desperately needed at this time.
Launch 2021 by giving your leadership team the gift of a highly rated webinar – Nursing Leadership in 2021: Rebooting after a Life-Quake A Nursing Leadership Reboot Workshop
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