Ms. Usha Banerjee, Group Director of Nursing, Apollo Hospitals.
To acknowledge the contributions and commitments of the nurses, World Health Organization last year had announced 2020 as the “Year of Nurses and Midwives”.
With limited sleeping hours, extra responsibilities and added pressure, the nurses have been on toes ever since the pandemic broke. The most exposed segment in the current situation are the nursing staff as there are the ones who spend maximum time with the patients, and this does not stir the dedication or the levels of commitment.
Another aspect of being a nurse is adapting to situations effortlessly. COVID 19 posed an additional set of challenges for the nurses in terms of managing patients, wards and ICU. Within few hours of training they learnt how to handle COVID patients in the intensive care who had respiratory distress, displayed unmatched excellence of maintaining hand hygiene and volunteering into treating patient not bothering about their personal lives.
“We had a nurse who herself was a cancer patient and wanted to support the team in attending to the COVID patient, that’s the level of dedication every nurse has all around the world. This kind of courage is unmatched, and the selflessness is commendable,”, Ms. Usha Banerjee, Group Director for Nursing, Apollo Hospitals.
As frontline workers, the nurses work tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe during coronavirus. They often work in challenging circumstances providing care to patients and risking their own lives while they fight for the lives of others.
