As Nurses Month continues for 2025, I hope you have taken or plan to take the opportunity to do something just for YOU to honor you and all that You do for your patients, co-workers and colleagues. If not, please make plans to do so in the coming weeks. Self-care and self-love are essential to avoiding burnout and caregiver fatigue.
The health care industry is under duress and and attack. Cuts are threatened in many different ways, from funding cuts to insurances and programs for children and adults who lack other options. Funding has been cut for research, and support groups. Wellness programs including vaccines and preventative treatments are being slashed. Nurses and doctors and all healthcare professionals are watching the healthcare industry change into something we don’t even recognize. In short, we face a lot of issues and challenges for the future. It’s going to be even more important to take care of ourselves so that we are able to help others.
Diseases which had been essentially eradicated such as Polio, Measles, and Whooping Cough are on the rise again without the support or any semblance of public health tracking and tracing and warnings. Years of evidence-based care is being tossed out by those who lack any medical knowledge. The availability of vaccines is severely limited and new versions are not being made. Flu season in the upcoming fall is going to be a nightmare for many children and older adults especially.
Make sure You take care of You to be up for the challenges. Let us hope and pray things do not reach pandemic proportions like we saw in 2020.