Opinion

Lajoie: COVID-19, nursing ethics, and the core tenets of public health nursing

By Katie Lajoie
During this legislative session lawmakers introduced numerous vaccine bills, with only a few granting more authority to mitigate COVID-19’s transmission. The remaining bills, under the guise of bodily autonomy and personal freedom, oppose mandates and are also anti-science. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses emphasizes primary prevention to achieve “the greatest good for the greatest number of people or the entire population.” In the context of COVID-19, this pandemic is not about “me” but about “all of us.”

Unfortunately, during this COVID-19 pandemic nurses have been faced with challenges to their ethical obligations resulting in considerable moral distress. Moral distress occurs when one knows the ethically correct action to take but feels powerless to take that action. The COVID-19 pandemic has nurtured hostility toward health care professionals and their desire and obligation to provide science-based care, leaving many of these essential workers questioning their commitment to the profession. One New Hampshire Intensive Care Unit nurse was recently quoted as saying: “Historically, one of the most trusted professions. To feel like we’ve lost the trust of the public is very disheartening for our staff.”

The dissemination of misinformation “jeopardizes the health and well-being of the public.” The New Hampshire Nurses Association would like the public to know that nurses, members of this most trusted profession, empowered by our code of ethics will continue to:

— Be prepared to practice from an evidence base;

— Promote safe, quality patient care;

— Use clinical/critical reasoning to address simple to complex situations; and

— Assume accountability for one’s own and delegated nursing care.

During these difficult times, ethical nurses must and will take action. Despite threats to our professional practice and the challenges faced by misinformation, nurses continue to have the public’s trust. We encourage the citizens of New Hampshire to discriminate between misinformation and rhetoric by continuing to educate themselves and to trust those experts who have firsthand knowledge and expertise by virtue of their vast experience.

Katie Lajoie is a registered nurse. She is currently the co-chair of the New Hampshire Nurses Association Public Health Legislative Advocacy Council. She has been an active member of the NHNA Commission on Government Affairs.

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