2020 is also the year of the nurse and midwife as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in honor of Florence Nightingale’s 200 year anniversary of her birth.
Florence Nightingale is the pioneer of modern nursing.
It is almost very fitting that this is the year of the nurse and midwife. They are on the frontlines of taking care of patients with COVID-19 and must advocate for not only the patient but also themselves. The protection and safety for themselves is vital for taking care of others.
Unfortunately there are already too many stories of nurses who were not equipped with the appropriate amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) and died because of it. Every hospital system should do everything to support the nurses and anyone on the frontline to get the right PPE. No system should deny the nurses safety and their own judgement on what is required to keep them safe.
As for the midwives, I am proud to say that I choose a midwife to be my primary care provider. Thankfully midwives and the hospital system have a good working relationship and thus many best evidenced based practices are utilized. I’ll go over it in more detail tomorrow. Goodnight for now.