Reflecting on 2020 “Year of the Nurse”

Before the term COVID-19 was a household name, the World Health Organization had designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

It was to be a year of celebration, milestones and recruitment opportunities to encourage more people to think about nursing as a career, it turned into one of the deadliest and difficult years for nurses across the world.

Marie Tarrant, director of UBC Okanagan’s school of nursing, reflects on 2020 and how the events of the pandemic brought home the significance of nurses in our society today.

Appreciation for nurses and all front line health care workers was celebrated by the public like never before, from nightly shows of appreciation to placing hearts and messages outside hospitals.

“I think the important role of the nurse has been long overlooked in many ways. Within a hospital setting, the most important intervention in a patient’s progress and recovery is expert nursing care,” Tarrant said. “Surgeries and other medical interventions can only be effective if there are skilled nurses to care for and monitor patients.”

In late October, the International Council of Nurses released data showing that in 44 countries, more than 1,500 nurses have died of Covid-19. The true toll is likely to be higher and the majority of these are in low-income countries where nurses may be the main health-care providers for their population. This will have implications for the health care delivery in these countries for years to come.

Due to restrictions on visitation at hospitals nurses were often the only person to be with a dieing patient.

“This has been the focus of a lot of media attention and has highlighted both the unique role of nurses in the pandemic and also the enormous burden that nurses have endured over the past nine months. This is also an issue that will have ramifications on the profession of nursing for years to come,” Tarrant noted.

As the vaccination roll-out begins nurses will again be front and centre in delivering protection to the public.

“Of course, nurses have always been on one of the main providers of vaccinations, but the context and scale of this vaccination campaign will be like nothing we have ever witnessed before,” Tarrant said.