International Emergency Nursing Vol. 49 March 2020
2020 year of the nurse and midwife: Meeting new challenges

International Emergency Nursing Vol. 49 March 2020
2020 year of the nurse and midwife: Meeting new challenges

Meeting new challenges

As we ease into 2020 it is important to recognise that the World Health Organization has designated this as the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”, in honor of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. Nurses and midwives play a vital role in providing health services and in many communities they are the first and only point of care– this is especially true in the emergency care arena. As we enter into this new year, we are confronted by the fact that we are facing a changing world with many new challenges and these will often first land on the doorstep of the emergency nurse. A case in point is the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) which has been named a public health emergency of international concern, a rare designation given to worldwide public health threats. The effects of COVID-19 worldwide are already unprecedented. As of this writing, the number of deaths continues to climb, already surpassing the SARS epidemic of 2002-3 [1]. In the United States, a White House proclamation is currently barring any non-US residents who have been in China in the past 14 days from entering the country. Multiple other countries have followed suit, including restricting air travel to and from China for an indefinite period of time. While these steps are extreme, they have been taken to prevent further spread of this new virus, as scientists and public health experts race to understand the transmissibility and severity of the virus.

Sue Anne Bell, Petra Brysiewicz

Elsevier Ltd.

March 2020

Sri Wahyuni

1755-599X

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International Emergency Nursing Vol. 49 March 2020