Message from Chief Nursing Officer Sharon Garratt on National Nursing Week
It is once again National Nursing Week, the week set aside to increase awareness and honour the many contributions nurses make for the well-being of Canadians.
This year’s theme of ‘We Answer the Call’ is intended to showcase the many roles that nurses play in a patient’s health-care journey. The Saskatchewan Health Authority ‘Faces of the Fight’ has a similar theme and highlights all healthcare workers.
This week, I want to thank all of the amazing nurses that took the time to submit their stories about the impact of COVID-19 on patients, themselves, their colleagues and their families. Your honest, heartfelt submissions have reached people in a way that nothing else could.
In our last Faces of the Fight message, we heard from Erin Ermel, a Licensed Practical Nurse working at Regina General Hospital.
Erin has been providing direct care to covid-19 patients on the first COVID-19 Unit in Regina. She describes feeling burnt out but also shows unwavering focus to help her patients.
From hearing these messages, we know you’re tired. We know you’re frustrated. We know the demands of continuously donning personal protective equipment are draining. We know some days it’s hard to come to work. The atmosphere has changed. We’ve asked you not to share food in your breakrooms and all sorts of similar changes in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.
This week we want to thank you all for your sacrifices. Your dedication and professionalism over the last 14 months has been inspiring.
In the very powerful words of Erin:
When you become a nurse, you sign up for exactly what we have been doing this past year, every single time you go to work. The disease or illness itself isn’t what matters. What matters to us is helping our patients.
I think what I want people to understand most is that we aren’t heroes. This is what we do, it is what we have always done.
So, to the nurses who get up before the sun and leave the hospital, clinic, community setting or long-term care home long after it has set, without fanfare, while managing your own fears and uncertainties- Thank you. To nurses in leadership roles constantly balancing the risks to make difficult decisions- Thank you.
On behalf of myself, all SHA leadership and all Saskatchewan residents, thank you for everything that you do each and every day! Please join me this week to acknowledge and honour the nurses you know, whether that’s in real life or publically, on social media by using the hashtag #weanswerthecall.