Celebrating the many roles of nurses

ELIZABETH IRELAND

National Nursing Week recognizes nurses for their dedication, courage and commitment — so evident during the COVID-19 pandemic of the past three years. The theme of this year’s week is “Our Nurses. Our Future: Celebrating the many roles that nurses play in a patient’s health-care journey.”

As the professional voice of Canadian nursing, the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) represents registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed and registered practical nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, retired nurses, and nursing students across all 13 Canadian provinces and territories.

CNA president Sylvain Brousseau, a nurse since 1993, has a professional background in acute care, community health and infection prevention. He earned his PhD in nursing sciences from the Université de Montréal and is currently an associate professor in nursing sciences at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. In 2022, Brousseau received a medal for his academic engagement from the assembly of governors of the Université du Québec.

“National Nursing Week is an opportunity to recognize and respect nurses for their courage, expertise, leadership, unique competencies and commitment. During the pandemic, nurses have been on the frontlines, working tirelessly to care for patients and to help contain the spread of the virus. Nurses have faced unprecedented challenges, often putting their own health and safety at risk, and have worked long hours under stressful conditions,” says Brousseau.

Across Canada, nurses play key roles including primary care, acute care, palliative care, public health, occupational health, school nurses, nurse managers and nurse practitioner-led clinics.

“Using a nursing lens, nurse practitioners bring together biomedical knowledge with their unique expertise and competencies,” says Brousseau. “They have additional education and experience, which enables them to autonomously diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications, perform medical procedures, address needs relating to a person’s physical and mental health, and gather medical history. Nurse practitioners provide health and lifestyle promotion, disease prevention and illness management for individuals, families and communities. Nurse practitioners also have the professional autonomy to manage and lead a community health clinic.”

Hospice and palliative care nurses provide care and support to patients nearing the end of their lives. Palliative care involves managing pain and other symptoms, while providing emotional and spiritual support to patients and their families.

Occupational health nurses work in industry to ensure that workers are healthy and safe, providing health education, managing injuries and ill- nesses, and promoting healthy behaviors.

“Nurses and primary care nurses play diverse and critical roles in urban, rural and remote communities. They work in a range of settings — from community hospitals and ambulatory clinics to schools, community centres and individual’s homes. Nurses also develop public health approaches to improving the health of underserved or marginalized populations,” says Brousseau.

He notes the importance of nurses advancing academic research and health policy. These nurses develop and conduct research on different social or clinical issues, such as nursing retention, randomized clinical studies and other areas that can help shape the overall health-care system and bring the patient experience to the table.

What do nurses need from the Canadian public to continue providing patients with crucial care? Brousseau says they need respect, collaboration, support, trust and recognition to really thrive. He says that nurses are still feeling the pressures of the pandemic — including staff shortages, workplace burnout and a desire to leave a stressful hospital environment for other employment.

According to Brousseau, nurses deserve to be treated with respect and dignity by the patients and families they serve. This means acknowledging their expertise, valuing their contributions to health care and intolerance for harassment or violence against nurses from patients or their families.

“We have zero tolerance for violence against nurses. It’s unacceptable,” says Brousseau.

Collaboration is a big part of effectively providing patient care. This includes patients following medical instructions, providing an accurate medical history and adhering to their treatment plans.

Nurses need support from Canadians to maintain their own physical and emotional well-being. This means providing a safe and healthy work environment and offering resources for stress management. As well, nurses need the trust of Canadians to effectively carry out their duties by trusting their expertise, competencies, clinical judgment and decision-making abilities.

Acknowledging nurses’ contributions to the health-care system and celebrating their successes are great ways to recognize the importance of the nursing profession. Brousseau emphasizes that nurses need, and appreciate, recognition for their hard work and dedication to the Canadians they serve.

“Without nurses, there would not be a functioning health-care system in Canada. Nurses are an essential part of the health-care system, and their work will always be critical to the health and well-being of individuals and communities,” Brousseau says. Find out more about National Nursing Week and the Canadian Nurses Association by visiting the website cna-aiic.ca.

THIS SPECIAL FEATURE WAS PRODUCED BY CONTENT WORKS, POSTMEDIA’S COMMERCIAL CONTENT DIVISION.