Abstract
The essence of nursing is the ability to journey – supportively and safely – alongside people who may be suffering extremes of uncertainty, devastation, pain, fear and heartbreak. This last year has provided all too many of these opportunities, with countless nurses themselves experiencing associated moral and physical injury as they work in structurally and emotionally deficient environments – some of which are also lethally dangerous.
In 2022, JRN produced its first special issue on ‘Conflicts, catastrophes and consequences’ and that year’s Veronica Bishop Paper of the Year prize was recently awarded to one of its papers – Irena Papadopoulos et al.’s (2022) work on ‘Empowering refugee families in transit: the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package’ (https://doi.org/10.1177/17449871211018736). Little did we know in 2022 how relevant the contents of this issue would be in 2023 as more and more nurses have been present for people facing continued and new conflicts and natural catastrophes.
During 2023, nurses have also had to grapple with their own individual and professional conflicts. Some continue to battle the emotional and psychological consequences of working at the forefront of a pandemic; some strive to return to work with long COVID-19 while others have seen their careers end all too abruptly because of this; many still struggle to bring the best care to patients and their carers in services that are themselves teetering on the brink of collapse. Close by my home in England nurses stood on picket lines to fight disrespect from politicians, moral injury linked to employment and the collapse of their aspiration that nursing was a career worth pursuing.
Eventually the strike was called off, but the underlying sentiments remain palpable and may account for some of the displeasure seen in the recently published Elsevier’s Clinician of the Future Report (September 2023). Although based on a small and highly selective international survey of 2607 clinicians (657 nurses and 1950 doctors) from 116 countries, the findings confirm discord amongst respondents with 37% considering leaving their jobs in the next 2–3 years and 54% stating that tackling the shortage of nurses must be a top priority. Nursing, a profession designed to help others in crisis, is in crisis itself.
And yet White and Hill’s (2023) recent special online collection of papers from the last 5 years of JRN’s archives (https://doi.org/10.1177/17449871231211733) shows nursing’s ability to meet diverse challenges and work through adversity rather than be crushed by it. It seems to me that nurses are expected to, and do, keep nursing and nursing care afloat largely through their sheer determination and their skilled emotional labour. But they also need political support and adequate resourcing. Is there any possibility that by the time I write an editorial at the end of 2024 I’ll be able to report that they are beginning to have those too? We can always hope.