ICU nurses not being involved in prep for second Covid wave

Hospitals are not involving intensive care nurses in the expansion of ICU capacity necessary to prepare for a second coronavirus wave, according to a poll by professional association V&VN. 70 percent of ICU nurses were not asked for input in capacity expansion. The majority is therefore dissatisfied with the state of affairs, NOS reports.

After the peak of the first coronavirus wave was over, agreements were made on scaling up intensive care in preparation for a second wave. Those agreements included that hospitals will focus on getting input from ICU nurses, improve their terms of employments, and provide them with more appreciation and career prospects. This is to make sure that ICU nurses are better able to cope if there is a second wave. Only about 20 percent of ICU nurses said that one of them is on their department's policy team.

That is very concerning, Rowan Marijnissen of V&VN said to NOS. "There is an awful lot of hard work and real steps are being taken. I realize that the day is short, and you cannot expect everything to be well organized in such a short period of time. But the agreements we have made about more appreciation, career prospects and authority must be implemented if we want to be able to scale up. Many colleagues are tired and lack appreciation. That is demotivating and I am very concerned about that."

The last thing the Netherlands needs is for trained and experienced ICU nurses to quit. Nearly 30 percent of the 588 surveyed ICU nurses said that they do not yet feel sufficiently rested to cope in a second coronavirus wave. 

About 75 percent said that they did notice their hospitals working hard on recruiting and training more ICU nurses and supportive colleagues. Almost 66 percent think their intensive care unit is better prepared now than it was in the spring. But almost half said that their department now has less staff than in the first wave