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According to a communique in June from the International Council of Nurses (2020), more than 230,000 healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19, with nurse deaths numbering more than 600. Of course, the accurate number of nurses who have died as a result of COVID-19 may never be known. Likewise, the number of nurses who have experienced negative psychological effects associated with COVID19 may never be realized.
Stressors Associated with COVID-19
In a survey conducted among nurses in New York, 64% reported inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) (Lawrence, 2020). This lack of adequate PPE is not an isolated case; nurses across the country, indeed the world, share this experience in acute care as well as other care environments. An additional stressor is related to the difficulty in communicating with the PPE in place, with nurses being unable to hear patients or their colleagues, and patients unable to understand nurses or see their faces (Alharbi et al., 2020; Humphreys & Joseph, 2019; Torales et al., 2020).
The lack of PPE increases stress for the nursing community, not only from a personal safety standpoint but also for others. We are not only nurses, but parents, siblings, children of aged parents, friends, and partners of those who can be impacted negatively by our unintentional transmission of the coronavirus. This concern has resulted in voluntary separation from family members up to and including living apart, which raises care-related issues of family and children as well as other logistics that further increase nurses' stress (Jackson et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020).
Additionally, healthcare workers have been forced to wear the same equipment for days at a time. Recommendations for light therapy and other methods of cleaning supposedly disposable equipment also raise concerns regarding the efficacy of this practice that is contrary to standard practices (Lawrence, 2020). Nurses and other healthcare workers often lack autonomy into decisions surrounding their own safety. Some may feel they have an inability to voice dissent surrounding these practices; protests have occurred across the nation with nurses demanding adequate PPE, but these always have not been met with adequate responses or solutions (Humphreys & Joseph, 2019).
The politicization of the pandemic itself is an additional stressor. The obstinance of this country's leaders regarding cooperatively working to ensure...