COVID‐19: Emerging compassion, courage and resilience in the face of misinformation and adversity

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Nursing Vol. 29; no. 9-10; pp. 1425 - 1428
• Main Authors: Smith, Graeme D., Ng, Fowie, Ho Cheung Li, William
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2020; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; Communication; Coronavirus Infections; Courage; COVID-19; Empathy; Nursing; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral; Resilience, Psychological; SARS-CoV-2
• ISSN: 0962-1067; 1365-2702
• DOI: 10.1111/jocn.15231

The Journal of Clinical Nursing published several significant papers that highlighted the emotional impact of caring at the time of SARS and dealt with some of the other lessons that could be learnt from the outbreak, in terms of evaluating systems of care delivery and use of nursing care models (Watson, 2009). World Health Organization Director‐General Mr Tedros hailed healthcare workers as “the glue that holds the health system and the outbreak response together” (WHO, 2020). Healthcare‐associated amplification of transmission of emerging viral infections is always a concern; surely, lessons should have been learnt about the importance of occupational protection during previous epidemics, including the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2012. Nursing staff need to change their protective gear if they take a toilet break; therefore, some have resorted to wearing diapers and there are even stories of nurses shaving their heads to reduce spread of infection and to allow them to be able to change their protective gear more quickly (Farber, 2020).