Nurses are meeting the challenges of COVID-19 with courage, compassion and love

National Nurses Week is celebrated each year from May 6 to May 12 because it coincides with the birthday of the famed nurse Florence Nightingale on May 12, 1820 But during 2020 the celebrations and parties have been put on hold because nurses have been too busy hard at work.

Who would have dreamed that we would find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic this year?

In typical fashion, however, nurses have mastered the art and science of caring for our patients with compassion, especially in these trying times.

The COVID-19 pandemic likely will be the biggest challenge of our lifetime; it will certainly be the biggest challenge of our nursing careers. Our patients are counting on us like never before, and we have risen to the occasion to persevere and care for our patients with love, competence and compassion.

When we think about some of our challenges that we continue to overcome, it is helpful to remember that nursing was born in the middle of adversity.

After all, it was from the battlefields of Scutari that Florence Nightingale gave birth to our profession and much of what we know about health care.

That’s because she saw possibilities where everyone else saw adversity, and would not shy away from facing such adversity.

During the early 1850s Nightingale became the superintendent of a new hospital for poor women in London, and she immediately had an impact on the hospital’s policies. But about a year after the Crimean War broke out, Nightingale found herself nursing wounded British soldiers who had been transported to a hospital in Scutari, Turkey.

When Nightingale arrived in Scutari, she found a filthy hospital with shockingly substandard conditions. She immediately directed the hospital’s orderlies and nurses to clean things up — and she began the process of providing wounded soldiers with proper medical care..

After roughly six months Nightingale and her nurses had worked to dramatically decrease the death rate at the hospital — and the resulting publicity about her heroic work changed the image of nurses and gave the nursing profession respectability around the world.

Today we remain inspired by the heroism of Florence Nightingale.

Our current threatening health care environment pushes us to the limit, and our future is uncertain. Our nurses are fighting for their patients as they simultaneously fight to also protect their own health and well-being.

Yet our nurses do all of this every day while continuing to see the good in people — and while never giving up in helping those who are facing this terrible virus.

During this terrible pandemic our nurses have been quick to mobilize, take on new assignments, motivate others and face fear head-on.

They are the Florence Nightingales among us who are looking at the today’s battlefields of health care and finding tomorrow’s new and innovative solutions. They are the leaders and the heroes of our profession who are refusing to give in.

We will continue to work hard, energize ourselves and lead others while taking to heart the lessons learned from our matriarch Florence Nightingale. It is the least that we can do for our patients, for ourselves and for each other.

Happy Birthday, Florence Nightingale.

We will celebrate your birth 200 years ago in our own quiet way.

And as we face this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we hope to follow your footsteps and keep facing this adversity with strength, courage and love.

Ruth Mustard is chief of nursing service for the Columbia VA Health Care System. Mustard has served as a nurse for 43 years.