May 12: Nursing Day, in the international year dedicated by WHO to the profession
Because their work is fundamental in society, because their care protects public health, because they put special effort into caring for those who need it most, because there are thousands of communities in the world where they are the only health reference for dozens of kilometers around... Since January 1 we have been living the International Year of Nursing and Midwifery Personnel and this May 12, like every year, is their day, a day marked on the calendar and chosen for being the day Florence was born Nightingale, the nurse considered the creator of the modern nursing model.
The 72nd World Assembly of the World Health Organization held in May last year unanimously agreed to declare 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. It thus highlighted the public recognition that the sector deserves for its important contribution to the health of society through its work in the field of care, research and health education and teaching.
The director general of the WHO himself, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, defended the proclamation of this world year, highlighting that without the work of these professionals “we will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals or universal health coverage.”
In its institutional statement, the WHO summarized that nurses and midwives play "a crucial role in the delivery of health services, dedicating their lives to caring for mothers and children, administering life-saving vaccines, providing health advice, caring for the elderly and generally meeting essential day-to-day health needs. In addition, they are often the first and only place of care available in hundreds of communities. To achieve universal health coverage, the world needs nursing and midwifery increase by 9 million”.
At that time we were very far from even imagining that these professionals, and all of us, would experience an extreme situation due to an unimaginable pandemic in practically the entire world, which has had healthcare personnel as the main protagonist. Nurses have lived, and still live, this situation on the front line, in many cases, with more difficulties than those inherent to facing an unknown disease.
Fraternidad-Muprespa has 253 male and female nurses on staff whose work has always been the care and recovery of the health of protected workers. A few weeks ago this purpose changed for well-known reasons. La Mutua made its hospital in Madrid available to public health. Between March 22 and April 7, 21 COVID-19 patients with an average age of just over 84 years were admitted there.
“Overnight we became a COVID Hospital, we changed circuits, schedules, there were no longer any services, operating room staff, emergency staff, hospitalization staff, consultation staff… we were a team willing to overcome it in the best possible way,” says Caridad Amador, nursing director of the Fraternidad-Muprespa Havana Hospital, who assures that, in the face of such complex experiences, They had the “support of the entire organization.”
"It was not only about overcoming those exhausting seven-hour shifts with PPE on, but also about ensuring a correct evolution of the patients and giving them excellent treatment, giving them photos of their families, making a video call or congratulating them when they were discharged. Also when we accompanied a patient in their last days and made them feel calm," adds Amador, who highlights that "everyone's involvement and professionalism has been exceptional and will mark a turning point." and later in a hospital, which just completed one year open in the middle of the COVID period.”
Now, after the conversion into a COVID Hospital, “which has been a drop in the ocean despite how important we have been for those patients and families,” the center gradually returns to its usual activity, that of a hospital that cares for patients with occupational pathologies.
Nursing is the largest occupational group in the health sector, representing approximately 59% of health professionals. It is part of all health and disease processes: health education, prevention and health promotion, caring for patients at the bedside and palliating when it cannot be cured. "We are a group that is in high demand in the rest of the European countries due to the quality of our training, but there is still much to do. I hope that the situation we have experienced will help to improve some things, for example the improvement of the conditions of nurses in nursing homes since it has been shown that we are an essential group," summarizes the director of nursing, who also emphasizes the importance of "promoting the leadership of the sector and for nursing to be part of the political and health organizations of the countries. This way we will also be closer to achieving historical demands such as the specialization of nurses. If a doctor is no longer required to know everything, why is a nurse?'”
Returning to normal means recovering surgeries, diagnostic tests, emergencies... without forgetting the experience lived but with our feet on the ground. "We are not heroes. We are simply professionals who want to do our job in the best possible way."
