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The headlines have been generous towards health care providers - and often - specifically, nurses. Signs have been hung on the side of buildings (that are now becoming rather tattered and worn), television stories were produced (the news cycles seem to have moved on), newspaper articles that occasionally miss the mark are written (how many out of touch executives were interviewed for the story about nursing on the front lines?), even the sidewalk chalk on driveways is now fading - all laud nurses - Heroes work here, Heroes live here, Love a nurse.
Ironically, 2020 was to be the Year of the Nurse. World-wide celebrations were planned to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing website states "this year will be dedicated to highlighting the enormous sacrifices and contributions of nurses and midwives, and to ensuring that the shortage of these vital professions across the globe be addressed"(2021). And then the world-wide pandemic hit - celebrations were cancelled, and nursing hunkered down to provide care to patients across the globe, working alongside multiple other healthcare professions that provide care to the sick and the dying.
May I be so bold as to speak for all of us? We are tired. We are exhausted. We are worn and we are weary. The fresh, bright-eyed, new stethoscope toting nursing graduates aren't coming fast enough. And, when they do, those men and women who are full of knowledge, but lack the application skills that come with mentoring and...