Fight or Flighting to the Rescue

This is a common theme in our society. Let’s step back and look at everything that has happened with healthcare, broken prior to November 2019, ushering in the viral storm that many have not recovered. We are now left with a tattered and torn healthcare system, nursing shortage growing while others were crushed by their employers ignoring their pleas for help — turning their back on the basic needs of healthcare workers. What do I mean by this? Data shows that the federal government gave healthcare systems in the “Pandemic Acts” the funding to prepare for such events, such as supplies to stockpile. This was over a series of 20 years dating back to when Anthrax was the latest unknown. Healthcare systems speaking of community, and integrity, yet fundamentally destroyed the health of not only patients but also their families, and Frontline Healthcare workers, mainly Registered Nurses and Certified Nursing Assistants in hospitals and wide-open disregard in Assisted, Skilled and Memory Units. Families ripped apart, and the Frontline Healthcare Worker that stopped their own lives to come in and be labeled #superheros to offset the lack and disregard for the staff member’s basic needs such as physiological, safety, love~belonging, esteem, and ultimately destroying self-actualization. This is a problem that has enrooted itself into my profession and left Frontline Healthcare Workers (FHW) feeling helpless, not good enough, and retaliated against relentlessly, especially if they did not sign an agreement to stay quiet about the lack of supplies, and those they were forced to reuse with chemicals — resulting in adverse health reactions. When reporting the incidents, nurses and nursing assistants would be relentlessly retaliated against, black-listed, and labeled a trouble-maker that was not eligible for re-hire, even during a massive pandemic. Those facing and fighting this battle faced the fear of the unknown, mixed with “impending doom” of the dying, to the massive amounts of death many FHW’s experienced; with last goodbyes to last breaths and hours, even days on their heightened fight or flight response to save one to thousands in a short period of time…resulting in Acute Stress Disorder, the precursor to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and for some, suicide. Nurses, CNA’s, and all those that were and who are still on the Frontline suffered tremendous levels of combat-like trauma, called #COVIDTrauma. This was simply unavoidable as this World War was fought without guns but hit us in the heart, those that are there holding your hand when you take that last breath, those that assist you with welcoming your new baby, and there to help you take one more breath to survival. Nurses and nursing assistants make healthcare work and advocate for you when you cannot help or speak for yourself. Please tell your Frontliner that Nurses Against Violence Unite, Inc is here for them, it is Free to join our Support Group! Also, please check out our updated website NursesAgainstViolence.org