Supporting nurses and midwives in a pandemic situation like covid-19
The year 2020 marks the 72nd anniversary of the World Health Organisation, and with it, came the World Health Day slated on 7 April 2020, themed “Support nurses and midwives”. Though unprecedented, this year, the theme became very relevant with the adversity of COVID-19. This situation exponentially elevated the service and efforts these healthcare workers put in to keep the world from destabilizing.
We at InnovatioCuris Foundation of Healthcare & Excellence (ICFHE), had the privilege to hold a virtual panel discussion through a webinar, with some top healthcare workers from around the globe on 7 April 2020, to commemorate the nurse and midwife community.
The response to the webinar was quite overwhelming. The initial number of registrations stood at 1248. Due to this, we broadcasted the webinar, live on YouTube, to the rest of the audience who wished to watch the event. Since then, the webinar video garnered more than 1100 views in 12 hours and the number has been rising steadily. This response reinforced our belief of the newfound love in supporting the real fighters who have been battling COVID-19 with their selfless efforts.
The discussion was initiated by Surgeon Rear Admiral Dr. V K Singh, Managing Director of InnovatioCuris. He briefly introduced the panelists and lauded the efforts of the healthcare workers. He then handed over the stage to the moderator Prof. Manju Chhugani, who is the Dean of School of Nursing Sciences and Allied Health at Jamia Hamdard in New Delhi. She introduced the following panelists of the webinar and their accomplishments in detail:
Prof. (Dr.) Roy K George, National President, Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) & Academic Director at Baby Memorial Hospital Kozhikode, India
“No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this – devoted and obedient” – Florence Nightingale
- Dr. Della Sherratt, an independent midwifery consultant from United Kingdom
- Dr. Thankam Gomez, President, Clinical Services, Aarohan Healthcare Services, India
The webinar steered with many aspects, primarily on the challenges being faced by the nursing communities in the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, many revered solutions that each panelist’s circles were following, were discussed in greater detail.
Prof. (Dr.) Roy K George mentioned that COVID-19 is the greatest challenge for the nursing fraternity in 150+ years of modern nursing history. Adding to this, Prof. Manju Chhugani emphasized that swift, strong, skilled and sustained efforts of all healthcare providers will lead to success in winning the battle against Corona. Dr. Thankam Gomez quoted news from WHO and also starkly pointed out the nursing deficit of 2 million in India and 6 million globally as per the 2018 statistics. Dr. Della Sherratt’s statement of nurse workload overburden clearly supports the statement made by Dr. Gomez. Dr. Sherratt also mentions the solidarity the people in UK are showing towards National Health Service (NHS) by their applause standing by the windows every Thursday at 8 o’clock, UK time for their constant efforts.
Many more experiences like the above were shared in the webinar and it circled down to the consolidation of the efforts that the world and in particular the healthcare workers are putting in fighting COVID-19.
Social media
Fun has been a deficit too in these tough times. So, in the form of solidarity, we tried to showcase their support to the healthcare workers by sharing their SMILING selfies. Many from the 1000+ attendees did not lose a second in sharing their photographs. We put the photographs together in the form of a collage mentioned below and shared it on our social media portals.
Consolidation
With so much support to the Nurses and Midwives, we would like to re-establish more webinars on topics related to nursing and midwifery to provide the visibility that these communities deserve. We all salute you again for the devotion, obedience, patience, and love towards humanity. Thank you!
#SupportNursesAndMidwives
Composed by InnoHEALTH Magazine Digital Team
