Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare systems and they need our help. Here’s what we need to do.

Today is International Nurses Day and I can’t think of a better time to reflect on the crucial role these incredible women and men play in fighting the global pandemic we’re all living through. Nurses make up the largest section of healthcare workers worldwide. They are often the first faces we see when we arrive at hospital, and the people who check up on us if we’re ill at home. Quite simply, they are the beating heart of our healthcare communities.

Yet nurses are more in need of support than ever before. The pandemic has put tremendous strains on global healthcare systems and our healthcare workers. Working in partnership with government departments, companies like Philips have a window of opportunity to reshape how healthcare is being delivered now, and also once the outbreak subsides.

What can be done? I think it’s critical we equip nurses with the means to have unobstructed visibility into their patients’ well-being – whether from the patient’s home, or within the hospital. Regular monitoring touch points via connected at-home devices can empower nurses to ensure patients who aren’t sick enough to be admitted to hospital are able to be cared for remotely. Research shows that many nurses are ready for this. The 2020 Future Health Index (FHI) [i] found that nearly four out of five younger nurses believe that digital health technologies can positively impact patient outcomes and experiences.

Within the hospital, there are three key ways we can support our nurses. First, as many nurses are being asked to take on responsibilities that they may not normally own, training materials are a must. For example, online video tutorials can help them get up to speed quickly, from invasive ventilation, to patient monitoring.

Secondly, given the surge of patients in critical care, the number of monitoring system alerts calling a nurse’s attention can lead to alarm fatigue. Patient monitoring solutions that triage these alerts and are configurable to each organisation’s workflow help nurses understand the source and risk associated with each.

Lastly, because the safety of our nurses is paramount, we must limit their contact with infected patients as much as possible by offering monitoring solutions that support their ability to provide care outside of a patient’s room. We have seen health systems adopt ways to limit staff exposure, such as running cords outside of patient rooms to monitors and IV pumps, or implement remote bed viewer solutions or use remote controls. Even in the aftermath of COVID-19, we can expect that the adoption of contactless monitoring solutions – such as wearable biosensors or camera-based systems that can measure vitals without the need for human touch – will continue to grow.

When my own daughter was hospitalised as a result of acute appendicitis and had to undergo emergency surgery, I was able to comfort her at her bedside. I cannot imagine only communicating with her over the phone or through a nurse, which is the case for many families of COVID-19 patients. Nurses recognise how hard this is. They are at the sharpest end of seeing how painful and real the separation is.  The more we can support care in the home during the early stages of the disease, the better. And once a patient is moved to hospital, my nursing friends tell me that it helps families enormously to be able to see their sick relative and talk to them via connected devices.

This shift to home care is crucial. This pandemic is occurring while reimbursement continues to move toward value-based care. Health providers that leverage population health management platforms can keep better track of each patient’s care journey, close gaps in care, and intervene early for rising-risk patients. These platforms are helping healthcare organisations identify and prioritise their high-risk patient populations based on specific code sets related to COVID-19.

I think this will go some way to reducing burnout among nurses too. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, nurses were already under immense strain. The FHI Report showed that nearly three out of every four younger healthcare professionals experience work-related stress. And of those surveyed, about one out of three has considered leaving the healthcare profession as a result of this stress, with nurses being most likely to do so. We need to pay very close attention to this younger generation of nurses on the front lines of COVID-19 and learn from them to do everything we can to help improve their work-life balance moving forward.

We clap for our healthcare workers every Thursday, because it gives us an opportunity across the UK to express our gratitude to these incredibly selfless and talented people. Counterpoint to this devastating pandemic is the selfless work taking place in hospitals around the world, which often goes unnoticed in calmer times. Let us be inspired by their sacrifices and not let them go unaddressed. Let’s work together to keep our talented nurses in the NHS by equipping them with the tools and support they so rightly deserve – in the midst of a pandemic and in the years beyond.

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[i] The 2020 FHI Report surveyed close to 3,000 younger healthcare professionals all under the age of 40 from 15 countries for their insights into how prepared they are to meet the demands of tomorrow’s healthcare.