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As Editor, I have been astounded and sadden by the tremendous emotional toll the pandemic has had on our nursing workforce. It has been a full year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now our nation is reflecting upon and shining a spotlight on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers, and nurses specifically. It is important that healthcare system leaders, academic and chief nursing officers, and policymakers confront the truth and trauma COVID-19 is having on the workplace environment, culture, and well-being of the nursing workforce. It is essential that we listen to the voices of nurses as they express the disruption to their sense of well-being and lack of career fulfillment and satisfaction. We must confront the truth and trauma of this pandemic, even now when it still rages within communities that are masked and unmasked.
As we learn to listen and become better informed by our nurse colleagues, those of us in leadership must stand up to support and address workplace conditions. By creating a culture of trust, filled with what Jean Watson (2008) calls loving kindness and equanimity with self and others, we can protect the current and future generations of nurses. Our collective culture must provide a comprehensive plan that recognizes the need for self-stewardship, the skill of tending to and nurturing ones well-being (Hossain & Clatty, 2021), and provide strategic support to manage the trauma after the pandemic has slowed and ceased. It is time to take a purposeful pause.
A Purposeful Pause
As Dean, I am concerned about the burnout, mental health fatigue, and...