Nursing Students and Educators Must Be Part of a National Public Health Surveillance Strategy
By KAREN JOHNSON PhD, RN
Shortly before our
world was turned upside down by COVID-19, I visited Space Center Houston with
my family. We marveled at the collective ambition and investment it took to
move from space travel being an aspirational dream to setting foot on the moon.
I thought about my favorite scene from the movie Apollo 13, when Gene Kranz
overhears the NASA Director saying “This could be the worst disaster NASA has
ever experienced,” and candidly replies, “With all due respect, sir, I believe
this is going to be our finest hour.”
Just months later, our entire planet is on a mission to turn tragedy into triumph. Only this time, Americans have not led the way in proactively translating science into action for the benefit of humankind. Instead, we ignored scientists who warned about the inevitability of a pandemic and now lead the world in most confirmed cases (which, due to our testing debacles, underestimates actual cases). As a public health nurse, this is not a race I want to see us leading. Future outbreaks are all but certain while we wait for a vaccine. Every single one of us must start preparing now, for we will all have a role to play.
To be sure, it
is imperative that we all stay the course with current physical distancing efforts
to prevent spread, minimize death, and avoid the collapse of our healthcare
system and its ability to care for patients with COVID-19 and other life-threatening
conditions that do not pause just because of a p...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medical Practice Karen Johnson Nursing Source Type: blogs
More News: Academia | Accidents | Blogging | Budgets | Cancer | Cancer & Oncology | Cancer Vaccines | Cardiology | COVID-19 | Diabetes | Education | Endemics | Endocrinology | Epidemiology | Funding | Genetics | Graduation | Health | Health Management | Heart | Heart Disease | Hospitals | Information Technology | International Medicine & Public Health | Medical Ethics | Men | Nurses | Nursing | Outbreaks | Pandemics | Science | Students | Teaching | Texas University | Universities & Medical Training | Vaccines