New Delhi: She, a nurse by profession, is a cancer patient herself but is still raring to join the fleet of COVID warriors as she feels it is once –in-a- lifetime opportunity to serve humanity in distress.
Talking to Medicare News, Usha Banerjee, leader of Apollo hospitals’ Nurses, leading the charge from the front, spoke of this nurse to illustrate the kind of dedication and courage nurses are showing while serving COVID 19 patients, completely sidelining their personal family challenges and agonies.
Ms Banerjee, Group Director for Nursing, Apollo Hospitals, says, ‘As we did not allow her to join the COVID fleet as it might have been fatal to her, she feels kind of traumatised. Her spirit is really commendable and representative of nurses as a tribe. I feel Florence Nightingale, founder of modern Nursing and the guardian angel of Nurses, is walking the earth now and permeating all nurses under the sun with the same spirit of selfless service she displayed during Crimean war which made her a legend. Every Nurse is donning the spirit of Florence Nightingale in these trying times of COVID. COVID or no COVID, this kind of spirit is permanent with nurses’
Mrs Banerjee further said, ‘there are such so many human stories abounding around nurses in COVID war that even a book would not suffice to document their motivation, selflessness, sacrifices and courage in the face of pernicious Corona Virus. Some nurses who have small children, have not met them for days, some could not even join the funerals of their near and dear ones.’
As if WHO had premonitions of COVID that it announced 2020 as ‘Year of Nurses and Midwives’ and known that humanity would need their service most any time soon. World Health Organization made the announcement in 2019, long before we heard the C of COVID. The apex global health organization’s badge of honour was to acknowledge previous contributions and commitments of the nurses.
Amidst the current lockdown, while the major chunk of the population sits back at home, Nurses are working relentlessly 24×7 to ensure lives are saved. With limited sleeping hours, extra responsibilities, and added pressure, the nurses have been on toes ever since the pandemic broke. The most exposed segment in the current situation are the nursing staff as there are the ones who spend maximum time with the patients, and this does not stir the dedication or the levels of commitment.
Another aspect of being a nurse is adapting to situations effortlessly. COVID 19 posed an additional set of challenges for the nurses in terms of managing patients, wards, and ICU. Within few hours of training, they learned how to handle COVID patients in the intensive care who had respiratory distress, displayed unmatched excellence of maintaining hand hygiene and volunteering into treating the patient not bothering about their personal lives.
“This kind of courage nurses are showing is unmatched, and the selflessness is commendable,’ adds Ms Banerjee.
