Artikel
Nursing profession in Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned
Meeting Abstract
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Autoren
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Ann van Hecke
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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D. Beeckman
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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J. Bergs
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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F. Dobbels
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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E. Goossens
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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T. van Achterberg
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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P. van Bogaert
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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S. Verhaeghe
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| Veröffentlicht: | 5. Juli 2021 |
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Gliederung
Text
Background: 2020, year of the nurse? Notably, COVID-19 has spotlighted nurses.
Objectives: Reflection on the dynamics around the nursing profession during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium.
Design and methods: Consensus discussion with Belgian nursing academics based on media coverage and participatory observations.
Results: We observed three dynamics:
- 1.
- Selective heroism. There was a strong media appreciation for specialized and technical nursing care (e.g., critical care). Domains such as mental health and elderly care received much less attention, presumably because these are perceived as less complex and therefore less valuable.
- 2.
- Nursing leadership as the big absentee. While various healthcare professionals (e.g., virologists and infectiologists) and managers made frequent appearances, nurses were absent from the public debate. Nurses’ expertise, as the professional group closest to patients, remained untapped in public and political debates. Consequently, the nursing perspective remained largely masked for policymakers. A minority of nurses also questioned the science regarding vaccinations.
- 3.
- Reforms driven by tangible issues. This pandemic exposed weaknesses in the healthcare system, particularly in elderly care. Efforts are currently being made to improve wages and create more jobs for nurses. However, this pandemic also showed that a better skill mix and master-trained nursing profiles are needed, in particular, to strengthen clinical leadership.
Conclusions: The nursing profession needs structural reappraisal, in terms of social image building, the further pursuit of professionalization through the systematic positioning of master-trained nurses, and the associated development of a legal and financial framework to promote autonomous advanced practice nursing and nurse-led care.
