HJNO Jan/Feb 2021

40 JAN / FEB 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS COLUMN NURSING IN my 46 years of nursing, I can say with certainty that I have never been faced with the challenges besetting all of healthcare during the last nine months. As we face the third surge and Louisiana returns to Phase 2 restrictions, I am ever more con- cerned about my friends, neighbors and colleagues in the nursing profession who are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of caring for the 237,740 COVID cases in- cluding 6,455 deaths reported in Louisi- ana as of Dec. 1, 2020. 1 Nurses, physicians and all healthcare workers expect to assist their patients toward health and well- CARING FOR THE CAREGIVERS ness. They don’t expect to be filling their professional role while at the same time serving as the surrogate family as their patients succumb to this insidious disease. Healthcare systems worldwide have been challenged to meet the needs of those with the COVID-19 virus. Our colleagues have faced overwhelming numbers of critical- ly ill patients. They often work extensive hours with limited resources at significant risk to their own health or that of their family. We have lost some of our own to this disease. It has been quite a few years since I have personally cared for critically ill patients working in the intensive care unit, and I often miss those days. Intensive care nursing was difficult yet rewarding. We experience the challenge of watching for subtle changes in a patient’s condition for better or worse. We celebrate a pa- tient’s hard-fought recovery or mourn an untimely loss. There has been an incredible effort during this pandemic to assure that our healthcare facilities have an adequate supply of nurses available to care for pa- tients. Yet, as the pandemic has continued far longer than any of us expected at the beginning of 2020, the profession is faced