The essence of nursing practice is to protect the public

By CARLENE FERRIER

To the Valley News

For more than 30 years I have worked as a nurse in public health serving the most vulnerable populations, a profession I chose because I was inspired by my mother, who was a tuberculosis nurse.

She worked at the North Reading, Mass., sanatorium and was responsible for a ward of 14 children under the age of 5, whom she loved. Sadly, parents dropped their children off as orphans in order to protect the rest of the family and the community from TB. During that time, the only treatment was good food grown on the property farm, windows kept open, and a regular routine of sleep, play and rest.

Early in my career as a visiting nurse I followed patients being treated for TB to observe them taking their medications daily to ensure compliance with a six-month regimen. Tuberculosis control and vaccinations were among the greatest achievements of public health of the 20th century.

To date, more than 384 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered. They have proven to be safe and effective at keeping people out of the hospital. The unnecessary crisis right now is that of the unvaccinated.

The vast majority of nurses — about 88% — are vaccinated or plan to be, according to a survey by the American Nurses Association, and nearly 59% support vaccine mandates. This is partly because the Code of Ethics for Nurses demands that we owe the same duties to ourselves as others and we are obligated to protect the public. It is unconscionable to me that any nurse would refuse to be vaccinated, or do anything to prevent common sense public health measures to mitigate disease, death and suffering.

As COVID-19 cases rise again, causing the hospital intensive care units to fill and more people to die unnecessarily, there will surely be more rhetoric, hyperbole and misinformation, some even coming from nurses. I am writing to tell you that they are not the majority, and they are not meeting their ethical obligations to society. The Professional Nursing Model of the American Nurses Association captures the essence of nursing practice and should be evidenced by nurses in all that they say and do. The qualities they display will be obvious to you when you see them: Caring: The act of kindness is intrinsically healing. All nurses will tell you they wanted to become a nurse to help people.

Values: Nursing practice demands sincere beliefs such as respect, empathy, truth and service.

Wisdom: Nurses are required to use information, knowledge and research to apply critical thinking skills to make the best decisions for their patients and populations.

Energy: How do they make you feel by their words and actions? Your health and well-being are at the center of their behavior.

Ethics: Nurses have been ranked the most trusted profession for 19 years in a row.

Nursing practice is an art and science and has been since its inception in the 1800s. We are here for you as we have always been, living our professional duty. But we cannot do it alone. Our choices do not only affect ourselves. Please do your part for your loved ones, the children, the immunocompromised and the nurses. Follow the science, get vaccinated, socially distance, wash your hands and mask up. It’s not too much to ask.

Carlene Ferrier, of Concord, is a registered nurse and president of the New Hampshire Nurses’ Association.