I was lucky to get my COVID booster shot over a week ago; or unlucky considering I do meet the criteria. The occasion was a good reminder of how precious and vital our nurses are. They are neglected, and tired, and taken for granted. And in the face of protests over masks and vaccines, there is new and different fear.
Yes, nurses should be vaccinated and maybe get a booster. But we need to inject nursing with a big powerful social booster. The point: nurses have never been honored as they should be, and so far there is still no evidence they will be. Even as they save our lives and the demands go up.
Nurses keep running to the fire, because this is what they, do. They know they are needed and they truly care. It’s bravery and commitment of highest order. And we must love them back.
There’s an understandable exodus away from nursing. Accelerated attrition. The pandemic triggered a profound gut-check across the ranks. So, it’s beautiful that new nurses are stepping up; they get deserved special acknowledgment. It’s also critical to nurture the more deeply experienced, the seasoned ones who can balance technology with care delivery or bed-side-manner.
Put yourself in nursing shoes, or those of their families. You now get the added work of giving boosters, which in normal times would not be bad. Non-pandemic work, like school immunizations, is still there under extra charged worries. And some patients are getting vacinated against their will, so there is probably attitude.
What Does the Special Nursing Social Booster Shot Entail?
- The United States must restore competent caring responsible government in control for the betterment of all. Until the constitutional basis is reset, there is no path to establish or salvage basics like health care, including nursing. There will be no well-functioning American democracy under the filibuster. The Poor People’s Campaign demands democracy basics, for nurses and all people.
- In optimized fashion, governing forces must capture and use the nursing-related lessons learned during this pandemic. There must be admission that important service elements are broken or missing. Review, for example, ongoing database proliferation and associated data loss/integrity. This implies transparency for all affected parties, from shot-giver to shot-receiver. Also required: honest collaboration and defined expectations across local, state, and federal entities. Nursing and public health should not suffer under the monetization-weaponization trend.
- Government must allow and enable strong social contracts for nurses and the nursing industry. Like other important yet disenfranchised groups, this entails strong unions and breaking of economic strangleholds. Certainly, nurses should be afforded free training and progressive work practices. Nurses deserve government honor and respect. But as it is with working class groups and professions, nothing changes unless corporations pay taxes.
Conclusion: Nursing Represents One Booster Shot of Many That are Needed to Restore America
The government’s will and capability to protect the people is spotty. Nursing is a broken contract. So is Afghanistan. There is a trend, but the war economy is always served first. America’s health should not always be ‘someday maybe’.
To break the democracy killing cycle, even to honor nurses, democracy basics must be restored. As many thinking caring people have advocated, including masses who voted for Biden-Harris, it obviously starts with eradication of the filibuster.
We cannot kid ourselves. It is the cross roads of democracy versus autocracy. Morals are deciding which way we land.