As the Covid outbreak intensifies, the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) notes media preoccupation with reporting the numbers of people hospitalised or in ICU.
Yes, hospitals and ICU beds are important but they represent a fraction of the response to an outbreak of this magnitude.
Such reporting ignores the consequences for community-based services being provided to the more than 100,000 people (and rising rapidly) already receiving or trying to receive care and support in the community.
The support and treatment of people who are sick or have sick family members, the managing of anxiety and the decision-making about the need for escalation of care falls on nurses, doctors and support workers who work in general practice, iwi providers and other community-based services.
This vital front line is also critical to keeping the pressure on hospitals as low as possible.
This work is being provided 24 hours a day by a workforce also dealing with increasing shortages due to staff sickness and the need to care for their own families.
The College hopes that the tireless work of this workforce will also receive the acknowledgement and recognition accorded to hospital staff.
Professor Jenny Carryer
Executive Director College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ)
