key: cord-0701691-qxk9kgyq
authors: Credland, Nicki; Gerber, Karin
title: The BACCN and COVID: What have we learned?
date: 2020-06-25
journal: Nurs Crit Care
DOI: 10.1111/nicc.12522
sha: 8b308489c8511ba5e1cfe47e9cf5533901e87a26
doc_id: 701691
cord_uid: qxk9kgyq

nan

the health care system. Around the world, they are demonstrating their compassion, bravery, and courage as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and never has their value been more clearly demonstrated. Extreme measures were taken to boost the critical care nursing workforce, with retired staff, Operating Department Practitioners, theatre, recovery, and ward nurses asked to join the critical care frontline. 2, 3 The current situation will undoubtedly take its toll on our workforce, and the impacts are likely to continue over a significant period. These are highly stressful circumstances for health care professionals and for our patients. We strive to provide patients and their families with the best possible care, but at the same time, we must protect ourselves to avoid taking the virus home to our families or becoming ill ourselves. Seeing a colleague become sick and needing intensive care treatment is especially hard, leading us to consider our own mortality.

The pandemic has also led to a period of reflection about what we have learnt over the last months. First, as a profession, we are adaptable and innovative. We have explored new ways of working, welcoming colleagues who have never worked in a critical care environment before with open arms, sharing our knowledge and skill freely. To be re-deployed into an alien environment must be a scary experience, made worse by the circumstances and severity of illness of our patients. This is to be applauded. We hope that these staff will leave with a better understanding of critical care, and some may even choose to pursue it as a career.

Second, we are strong. Despite the pace and power of what has been thrown at us, we have kept going even when sometimes we just want to cry. This total dedication to our patients is what makes us critical care nurses. Whether we work at the bedside, have been educating re-deployed staff, leading teams, or undertaking research, we have undertaken these roles with dignity. We have explored innovative new ways of communicating with each other, with our patients and their families. We have held patients' hands when they were dying and when their families could not. Those nurse-family relationships may not have always been face to face, but they are no less valued and demonstrate integrity, professionalism, and compassion.

However, we must also accept that we are human, and the psychological impact of COVID on staff well-being must not be underestimated.

It is OK not to be OK. 4 Third, we are a powerful voice. The saying "if you do not have a seat at the table bring your own chair" resonates powerfully with us. We need to reverse the heroes and angels narrative and present critical care nursing as the expert, critical profession that it is. 5 As the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) National board, we are doing all we can to ensure our voice is heard on national and international working parties, as leaders and collaborators of national policy change, as members of the national critical care COVID response community, on expert panels, and through the media. Most importantly, we need to look after our members. We have worked with numerous partners to develop a huge amount of text and audiovisual resources for critical care nurses and for other professions who have been re-deployed into ICU, opening them up free of charge to non-members. 6 We have been very conscious of the psychological impact on staff and have developed webinars, videos, and links to support services for those who are "not OK." 7 We have continued with our monthly Twitter chats, ensuring that we engage with the critical care nursing community and talking about the topics that are important to you.

As nurses, we should never be afraid to challenge. Leadership is hard sometimes, and maintaining your standards when those around you are trying to push a different agenda forward takes courage.

However, integrity and truth telling means everything to the BACCN, so we must "walk the walk." We will not win all our battles, but that will never be through not trying! Reflection has also made us ask the question "why we do what we do every day as critical care nurses and how can the BACCN support our members?." Similar reflections were made in a recent NICC editorial, with the authors exploring the need for staff to "find meaning in work" as a strategy to reduce the psychological impact of critical care nursing. 8 The overall theme of the 2020 conference is "Critical Care Nursing: the next decade." Ironically, virtual conferences may well be the way we do things in the next decade! It is a great opportunity to really live out our BACCN conference ethos of innovation, excellence, and learning. Acknowledging that some of our members might suffer posttraumatic stress and burnout, we wanted to offer the opportunity for 

World Health Organisation. State of the world's nursing report

Coronavirus: principles for increasing the nursing workforce in response to exceptional increased demand in adult critical care

The psychological needs of healthcare staff as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic

nicki+credland+angels&docid=13825234130684&mid= 5BB11729E0C18B01F6D55BB11729E0C18B01F6D5&view=detail& FORM=VIRE. Accessed

Remember why you became a nurse in the first place (Editorial)