We must break the silence about suicides of nurses as they fight for patients in the pandemic, UK’s dean of nursing writes

Janie Heath, Ph.D.
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By Janie Heath
Dean, College of Nursing, University of Kentucky

While the Covid-19 pandemic rages on with new variants, the urgency for Kentucky nurses to stay on the front lines now extends to a massive vaccine campaign. Just like Florence Nightingale and Mary Jane Seacole, a British-Jamaican nurse, did in the Crimean War, nurses today are working 24/7 to get the mission accomplished. Although the practice settings may change from a critical-care unit one day and the next to a large parking-lot tent, football stadium or drive-through clinic, the shepherding of public health in the commonwealth remains the same.

A key question is, “Who is shepherding the mental health and wellness of nurses?” What about turning up the call for action with a “warp speed mission for the mental health and wellness for Kentucky nurses,” like a “vaccine to help build up immunity” from the pandemic’s triple impact on health, daily life disruption and economic downturn?

Nurses are human, too, and experience the same worries and anxieties as all Americans. Pre-Covid, the prevalence of nurse suicide was higher than the United States’ general population and now with compassion fatigue escalating, the urgency is greater for evidence-based interventions so another life is not lost to suicide.

Leaders of the Kentucky Nurses Action Coalition have been actively engaged to address “the silence of nurse suicide.” Leveraging the recently passed Kentucky Nurses Association and the Kentucky Nursing Deans and Directors resolution (October 2020), “A Call to Action for Kentucky Nurse Leaders to Promote Practices for Optimal Resilience and Suicide Prevention in Schools of Nursing,” multiple venues are unfolding to “break the silence.”