By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
For nearly two decades, nurses have been rated the most trusted profession. But now, some nurses feel like punching bags when patients, family members, and friends don’t believe that COVID-19 is real. Many nurses have completely withdrawn from social media sites because people’s denial about what is happening is just too painful. Some have stopped speaking to family members. Nurses and doctors report that they have never had so much pushback, from people disputing their test results, refusing treatment like plasma therapy or oxygen, to leaving the ICU before they’ve recovered. In a short six months, we have moved from public signs of appreciation for the work to disparaging comments and accusations that nurses are promoting conspiracy theories.
We know from the literature that this type of experience leads to trauma and pain. Richard Tedeschi, an expert in trauma, reminds us that it is not the event itself that causes trauma but rather how it changes one’s core beliefs about who we are, how others respond to us, and what the world should look like. Nurses are grieving the loss of patients and family members who at one time, trusted their judgment and now don’t believe them. Last month in a tweet that went viral, nurse Ashley Bartholomew talked about how she decided to be brutally honest with a COVID-19 patient in intensive care who criticized “fake news” about freezer truck morgues and downplayed the virus. She wheeled him on a stretcher past other COVID patients on ventilators. The response from healthcare workers was very supportive – from some of the public, not so much. One doctor retweeted that he had been described as a Vaccine Shill by a longtime patient on his Healthgrades Site because he mentioned to the patient during a visit that he was high risk and should get vaccinated.
Nurses are now finding themselves not only on the frontline of a battle with COVID but also a war of disinformation. Eric Sartori, an RN, tried to set the record straight on his Facebook page and now finds himself a victim of death threats and personal attacks. Some people who used to come to nurses for advice now view their work with suspicion. Nurses rightly point out that the problem is much bigger than COVID. When patients decide that they don’t trust science, they will be less likely to seek medical care.
They may be right about the problems for healthcare professionals moving forward. Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of communications who studies the spread of disinformation at Syracuse University, said the coronavirus outbreak offers a look at how conspiracy thinking is now, in some ways, more organized. “With conspiracy theories, the reason they’re impervious to fact-checking is that they have become a way of being in the world for believers,” Phillips said. “It isn’t just one narrative that you can debunk. It is a holistic way of being in the world that has been reinforced by all the other bulls— that these platforms have allowed people to consume for years.” WHO has dubbed what is happening as the Infodemic. There is PEW data that up to 36% of the population believes the conspiracy theory that it a Bill Gates’s plan to control vaccination efforts that would include tracking people via implanted microchips activated by 5G cellular towers.
It is challenging to say what the long-term psychological impact of the Infodemic might be on healthcare professionals. Most of us go into healthcare because we want to help people. A lot of the satisfaction in healthcare roles comes from the appreciation expressed by patients and families. When that is not there, nurses suffer as they are now. Experts advise us to be kind to those we don’t believe and tell the truth – recognize that what you are seeing is an outcome of pent up rage to how COVID has changed our lives. It is so horrible in so many ways that people don’t want to believe it is real – they desire a different explanation. Some have not been directly impacted, so they don’t have any first-hand experience.
Healthcare professionals may want to consider a digital detox at this time because fighting both pandemics simultaneously is just too hard.
Read to Lead
Tedeschi, RG, Moore B. (2020). Transformed by trauma: Stories of post-traumatic growth. Boulder Crest.
Read Rose Sherman’s book – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave
© emergingrnleader.com 2020
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