International Nurses Day 2022: A look at the crucial role played by these frontline workers amid COVID

International Nurses Day is observed on 12 May every year to celebrate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Nurses play an integral role in taking care of society and during the COVID-19 pandemic, their extraordinary contribution is noteworthy. Nurses have been at the forefront of the fight against global diseases. They provide timely care to patients on time. As per the  World Health Organization (WHO), nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers. Nurses have been crucial in the functioning of our medical facilities amidst the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. They have also been inoculating the COVID-19 vaccine to the public, playing an important role in the smooth conduct of India’s vaccination drive. Nurses have often described their challenges in keeping themselves safe as they perform their duties in hospitals and ICUs, providing antenatal care, elderly care and psychosocial support to the COVID-19 patients. The quarantine aspects after they have attended a COVID-19 positive patient also need to be taken care of. Nurses have been given training to deal with COVID-19 patients while ensuring that protocols are followed, PPE kits are properly used, and also practicing hand hygiene, among other things. Nurses play a very important role in managing a health crisis because they are the link between the patient and the other healthcare professionals. The pandemic has brought into focus the need for the countries to invest in nurses and midwives along with other aspects of achieving universal health coverage. As part of the community nursing program, nurses are also trained to take part in epidemiology studies. In many of the ways, nurses do contribute to helping us understand epidemics. Through this COVID pandemic, nurses have already been involved in collecting and analysing it, understanding the disease patterns and many other things. They are also engaged in identifying and investigating the problem, formulating the causal factors and alternative interventions, making implementations to control the problem, and then evaluating the interventions. They also play an active role in preventing and controlling communicable diseases.