In My Own Words
Justin Résil ’19 shares personal and professional experiences as a nurse during the pandemic.
We all have a story about how our individual worlds changed in similar and dissimilar ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the virus originated in Wuhan, China, many questions and concerns arose among clinicians and lay people alike regarding the virulence of the disease. I commonly engage with patients of color. In many circumstances, these patients, especially Black patients, are the ones most affected by illness and disease due to a multitude of factors—including inadequate funding, lower levels of education, and inability to access the health care system due to area of habitation, lack of transportation, and lack of significant health insurance. As their health care provider, it fell to me and my co-clinicians to address the knowledge deficits that our patients possessed.
As the pandemic progressed, I felt the need to take a more active role, so I began looking for emergency sites that needed aid. I found a commission by the Boston Hope Center that was looking for local medical providers and health care professionals to help assist and treat homeless patients in the Greater Boston area who had been affected by the virus.
As this crisis continues to unfold, it will fall on nurses to continue to reach out to their communities. We must address the deficiencies in knowledge with evidence-based practice. We must continue to advocate for the needs of our patients, our coworkers, and ourselves. The long-term impacts of this virus are far-reaching and it will likely take years to fully surmise the extent to which it has affected humanity on this planet. Nevertheless, we must never shy away from our responsibilities. We make our future and if there is one thing that this virus has taught us it is that our future will be made by working collaboratively, taking the time to understand each other, reaching beyond our differences, and holding to the things that bring unity rather than the things that divide.
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