Reclaiming Nurses Week Part 3: The Solution

Reclaiming Nurses Week Part 3 focuses on The Solution. Nurses share the changes that need to be made within the system as well as increased support between colleagues. The Solution is not just about a large overhaul of policy within the field of nursing, but smaller changes that will create a more stable environment: Listen. Validate. Support. Our nurses also highlight current resources that exist to assist in mental health screenings and treatment options.

In the previous Part 1 and Part 2, we examined The Problem and The Cause, and heard stories of the impact burnout has on the mental health of our nurses as well as how these issues are rooted deeper than just the struggles during the pandemic.

Read the transcript:

Lori: One of the worst things I think nurses have adopted is this stance that it's just part of the job. You're selling yourself short and you have to think about what this has all done to you and for you.

Joshua: We need an institution that's going to take leadership postcrisis and start taking important actions.

Sarah: Looking in the mirror and recognizing that what they are doing currently is not working. And that's hard. I mean, that's vulnerable, that's difficult, but whoever takes that first initial step is going to be groundbreaking and is going to lead the way to change that is going to save us.

Sharon: But it can't just be nurses' resilience. It has to be changes in the health care system and the workforce and health care models that allow nurses to be in settings that really do protect and promote their health and that maximize nurses' unique skills and knowledge and competencies to provide them rewarding experiences of taking care of patients and helping patients heal and recover.

Lori: There will be fewer RNs in the field, and we have to figure out how we're going to design models of care that fit various clinical settings. And it's not going to be a one-size-fits-all. We should recognize that everybody's been through a traumatic event, we're all trauma survivors. And the way we handle this as leaders is going to determine our future going forward.

Joshua: But I think more than ever right now, we really need to be focusing on the basics, taking care of ourselves.

Cheryl: It's really important for you to have the skillset, not just to be able to pass meds. You have to know how to manage your own stress and take the time out for your own personal well-being. I feel that it's important for us to have environments where nurses and health professionals are working, where it will really support that type of a structure.

Amanda: There are a few best practices that I think many institutions would be wise to buy into. One of them is the HEAR program, the Healer Education and Referral program. They provide free confidential anonymous screening every year to every employee, so that staff members actually have a way of self-determining their risk for various mental health issues, up to and including suicides, substance use. And then once they complete that anonymous screening tool, they have immediate access via an encrypted pathway to actual meaningful referral resources and then long-term counseling.

Sarah: And the overarching goals of the Don't Clock Out initiative is normalizing these conversations amongst health care workers.

Joshua: We're hoping to provide free therapy that's completely absent of an employer or an insurer to health care workers.

Sarah: So that they don't have to sit in those emotions and develop these feelings that lead to moral distress and mental illness. Hopefully, if our test flights go well, if our initiatives go well, maybe these things can be implemented nationwide. And that's really the goal.

Joshua: Those little, small pieces that are going to come together and make true lasting change.

Julie: What's coming out in initial data that is starting to get published is that just listening to nurses around their needs, around what they need for resources, around connecting with one another seems to make all of the difference.

Cheryl: Remember the nurses who are caring for you are also human. They also have families and they need to be treated with respect. They needed to be treated as a teammate for you as a patient or your family member to get better.