A couple of weeks after weighing in on issues nurses face during the pandemic, Delaware Nurses Association is now taking action to help.
Staffing issues, distress over being in the middle of arguments about the pandemic, and dealing with distrust of health professionals are some of the issues nurses say they are coping with daily.
And the state nurses association is responding with listening sessions this month to help them deal with these mental health and workforce issues.
Delaware Nurses Association executive director ChrisOtto says they hope to improve mental wellbeing by identifying issues and how to fix them.
"Our goal here is to provide that forum for nurses to have a safe space to share this information, to share their experiences and concerns, and to also share their suggestions," said Otto. "The first two have been great."
Another 12 set through the end of October up and down the state, and Otto says he believes that can make progress with what they glen form these sessions.
"[We can] learn about and elevate the qualitative data of the experiences of our nurses to utilize to reform and advance our strategies at the statewide level," said Otto. "This is just the beginning, no crystal ball, but I think we see some future surveys and other information come out from this based off of what we see from this initial grouping of sessions."
Otto adds the meetings are also a way to tell nurses they will be supported and given the resources they need.
He also notes that the Delaware Nurses Association understands they’re not the only workforce facing these issues, and they sympathize with others and what they are going through during the pandemic.
