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Holding the Whole Catastrophe: Being a Nurse During the COVID-19 Pandemic

An honest conversation about what nurses have been facing on the frontlines and how we can honor their experience and begin the process of healing.

# Alt text: Promotional image for a webinar titled "Holding the Whole Catastrophe" featuring Cinyda Hylton Rushton discussing nursing during COVID-19.

How do we heal the wounds of the pandemic? Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN and frontline nurse Rheanna Hoffmann, RN, BSN, NC-BC have an honest conversation about what nurses have been facing on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and how we can honor the entire range of experiences and emotions they’ve experienced over the last 18 months.

Watch the video: 

4 Resources for Nurses and Healthcare Workers

1) The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics has compiled a selection of videos and articles for healthcare workers facing the personal and professional challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2) The AACN American Association of Critical-Care Nurses recently hosted a Facebook live conversation on dealing with the emotional toll of a prolonged pandemic.

3) WikiWisdom released a report titled “Frontline Nurses: Wisdom from Nurses So We Never Again Mishandle a National Healthcare Crisis.”

4) The Resilient Nurses Initiative of Maryland partnered with WikiWisdom to create the Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom Forum. Their five key recommendations were released in “Mind the Gap: Preparing Nurses to Practice with Resilience & Integrity.”

Selected Articles from Cynda Hylton Rushton PhD, RN, FAAN

  1. “Burnout and moral resilience in interdisciplinary healthcare professionals.” Journal of Clinical Nursing.   
  2. “Mindful Ethical Practice and Resilience Academy: Equipping Nurses to Address Ethical Challenges, American Journal of Critical Care.” American Journal of Critical Care.
  3. “The invisible moral wounds of the pandemic: Are we experiencing moral injury?” AACN Advanced Critical Care.
  4. “Measuring Healthcare Inter-Professionals’ Moral Resilience: Validation of the Rushton Moral Resilience Scale.” Journal of Palliative Medicine. 
  5. “Applying E-PAUSE to Ethical Challenges in a Pandemic.” AACN Advanced Critical Care.
  6. “Suspending our agenda when confronting ethical challenges.” AACN Advanced Critical Care. 
  7. “Why are we doing this? Creating a new narrative to meet futility with integrity.” AACN Advanced Critical Care. 
  8. “Inter-professionals’ definitions of moral resilience.” Journal of Clinical Nursing. 
  9. “Concept analysis Moral Resilience.” Nursing Outlook 
  10. “A Collaborative State of the Science Initiative: Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing.”The American Journal of Nursing
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