Question

Based on your experience personally or professionally, what do you think is relationship of nursing leadership to disease outbreaks like COVID-19. Describe the leadership skills and traits that you think are helpful in these types of circumstances.

Answer 1

The vital role of nurses is undeniable. Nurses not only provide critical care to patients in need, but they also serve as agents of change, advocating for patients and promoting improvements across health systems.

Well over 3 million nurses treat, support, and educate patients about critical health information, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In the coming years, the BLS projects this number to grow, estimating that by 2028, the nation will require an additional 371,500 nurses to meet the needs of an aging population.

Additionally, as communities struggle with pandemics like COVID-19, they often depend on nurses for information, care, and emotional support. They are wise to do so nurses of all types contribute in key ways to pandemic responses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that to effectively manage an emerging pandemic, responders must quickly recognize it. As case numbers of a disease increase, or clusters emerge, health professionals must immediately identify them.

Because nurses work on the front lines. They stand in an excellent position to rapidly identify communicable diseases and spot infectious pathogens early.

Nurses in Public and Community Health Clinics-

Public and community health centers give marginalized communities access to healthcare. People with limited funds, lack of insurance, or language barriers rely on these clinics to deliver their primary care.

The nurses working in public and community health clinics deliver care that-

• Prevents diseases
• Promotes and maintains health
• Educates patients about their health
• Diagnoses and treats illnesses and injuries

This often involves offering services such as blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, diabetes screening, diet counseling, immunizations and vaccines, well visits, family planning, and developmental screening for children. Additionally, these nurses address chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, or acute illnesses, such as the flu and cold viruses.

Community Health Nurse Duties During Disease Outbreaks-

During a disease outbreak, nurses working in public and community health clinics typically carry on with their regular duties. However, the way they do so may change in efforts to limit disease spread and to protect their health and the health of their patients.

For example, during a highly infectious pandemic such as COVID-19, nurses may-

• Screen patients for symptoms over the phone
• Conduct appointments, such as behavioral health appointments, remotely
• Take on extra duties including educating patients about self‐isolation and quarantine via hotlines
• Help interpret the changing and developing recommendations and information from the CDC

Prevention is the ideal response to a potential global pandemic. Key to prevention is early recognition. Nurses in community or public health clinics who have regular and ongoing connections to community members are positioned to recognize symptoms of new or reemerging infectious diseases.

Further, nurses help clinics track symptoms. They can also refer patients and educate them about disease transmission and how to protect themselves and others. By teaching patients about social distancing, proper hand-washing, and other sanitation practices, nurses can help stop the spread of an infectious disease.

Additionally, nursing leaders can work to develop early reporting networks that keep public health officials and public health organizations, such as local and state health departments, informed so they can take early preventive measures and communicate with the public.

COVID-19 is causing a humanitarian crisis of global proportions, with hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted. Sadly, we’re not nearing the end of the crisis.

Create a central and clear list of priorities-

Centrally set out a clear set of priorities, and locally implement them with a high degree of local manager autonomy. In a dynamic situation, overly centralizing decision making hobbles the organization’s ability to respond quickly and effectively. Effective leaders empower managers to make the best decisions they can, bearing in mind a clear set of enterprise priorities, such as keeping employees safe and behaving ethically toward customers. Clear thresholds should be put in place for when a local manager needs to ask for authorization from the center.

Pursue a nonbinary approach to problem solving-

This is the opposite of what I call the “teenager approach to problem solving,” inspired by the book “Decisive,” by Chip and Dan Heath. Teenagers tend to adopt a binary approach to solving problems.

There are almost always more options besides “do it/don’t do it” if teams can be creative about how they solve problems. For example, many leaders will be faced with the decision of whether to fire people and risk losing talent or keep their people and risk their margins.

If you think hard enough about the problem, the options are not limited to “We need to fire people or risk our business.” More options could be considered, such as reducing full-time work to 80% for a portion of the workforce, or exploring early retirement options for some. Getting teams together to be creative and nonbinary about solving the rash of problems that crop up in a crisis can create lasting cohesion, not to mention more productivity and value for stressed-out customers and stakeholders.

Be honest, empathetic, clear and simple-

Hone a clear, honest, empathetic and simple approach to communication as the COVID-19 situation evolves. This is obvious, I know. Yet I include it because it is so important and also because we live in an era of rapid dissemination of information that is of questionable veracity, from multiple sources.

Be the trusted source. Remember that in any communication plan, it matters less that you communicated something and more that your audience understood it. As a colleague of mine is fond of saying, it shouldn’t be called a communication plan — it should be called an understanding plan. The emphasis should be on what your listeners take in, especially in a situation that is volatile and unpredictable.

Write down the stories-

Collect stories of teams coming together to overcome the adversity caused by COVID-19. People are capable of amazing things in a time of crisis.Humans respond to the detail of the story, so capture that. Over the past few days, I’ve heard of scientists pooling resources and heroically searching for a vaccine.