Nowadays, you would be hard pressed to watch the news or go through social media without seeing a post thanking our healthcare workers or showing support for their sacrifice. And while it is amazing to see the widespread support and love for these communities, it also begs the question: why are we not always this supportive of healthcare workers? Why did it take a global pandemic for us to finally start appreciating nurses?
I first want to start by saying that I recognize and appreciate every level of healthcare worker, however I’m specifically going to focus on nurses because I have a bit of a special interest. My mom is an ER nurse here in Georgia, and has been on the frontlines of this pandemic putting herself at risk daily. Her hospital has some of the highest COVID-19 numbers in the state, and everyday I see how exhausted and drained she is. But guess what? She’s always exhausted and drained, because that’s the life of a nurse! My mom works 12 hour shifts, standing on her feet all day, and essentially making sure people don’t die. In her job, she has been threatened by knives, verbally assaulted, and exposed to numerous viruses and diseases. And yet, despite it all, she loves her job. She thrives in the fast-paced environment of the ER and loves getting to help save lives on a daily basis.
My mom does incredible work every day, so it’s honestly heartbreaking that she, and other nurses, only receive appreciation when they are literally putting their lives at stake. Now more than ever we are seeing healthcare workers making huge sacrifices for their work. Parents not being able to go home to their families, hospitals having shortages of PPE, and nurses in their 40s dying from this virus. These people did not go into the field of healthcare to sacrifice their lives, and they shouldn’t have to!
Now I do want to say that it is amazing and beautiful to see the public support that healthcare workers are receiving right now. After work, my mom comes home and tells me about the food that people are bringing them, the people who see her in her scrubs and thank her, and the cars that drive up to the ER just to honk their horns in gratitude. But showing this amazing support for nurses in public means nothing if you treat them like crap in private.
Healthcare workers are still being denied COVID-19 testing and many are forced to work without proper safety protection or any pay incentive. So grand gestures and words of thanks are beautiful, but what our nurses really need right now is better protection: physically, financially, and emotionally. This pandemic has truly highlighted the flaws in our nation’s healthcare system, and one of the major ones is how we treat those that are taking care of us when we are most vulnerable.
My hope is that we always show this level of appreciation for our healthcare workers, even after this pandemic is over. It can be really easy, and sometimes valid, to complain about the long waits in the ER, or how long it took to see a doctor. But guess what? If you are waiting 4+ hours in the emergency room, there’s probably a good reason. There is so much happening behind the scenes of every hospital that we don’t know about and so many people working extremely hard so that you can be seen as quickly as possible. So rather than complaining to the nurses or taking it out on them, try to be more empathetic. Our nurses are often short staffed, overworked, and underappreciated, and yet they are still providing their best work to every patient they see.
So, in the future, I ask that we all try to be more thankful and appreciative of the work that our nurses do for us on a daily basis. And remember that it shouldn’t take a global pandemic for us to tell them how grateful we are.