A Pediatric Nursing Professional Development Team’s COVID-19 Response

Abstract

The role of pediatric hospitals in the COVID-19 pandemic changed quickly. The team of clinical nurse specialists and clinical nurse educators in a large pediatric hospital were instrumental in the institutional response through simulations, serving as change agents, collaboration, and implementing systems thinking. Leveraging the expertise of this team during this historical and unprecedented time optimized patient and associate safety as part of a pediatric hospital's COVID-19 response. COVID-19 has introduced a "new normal" way of life, especially for nurses and all healthcare providers, with the challenge of maintaining safety and continuing promotion of excellent patient care practices. Despite ongoing U.S. preparedness planning for a pandemic, incorporating recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the novel coronavirus has presented challenges far beyond any expected or imagined. Since 2014, the CDC and WHO have updated and published essential steps for a national pandemic plan, and the Department of Health and Human Services updated the pandemic influenza plan in 2017 (Jester et al., 2018). The basis of this planning included personal protective measures, social distancing, and other methods to slow the transfer of the virus, along with adequate hospital beds and equipment, which are all part of the present plan to manage COVID-19 (Jester et al., 2018). However, previous planning did not address the current situation in the United States and the world, which includes a deadly virus with significant infectious characteristics in a population lacking any known immunity or previous exposure. COVID-19 has affected and changed everyday life as it was known only several months ago and came into being with limited information and understanding and continues to evolve.The lack of knowledge and experience in dealing with this novel virus was obvious, requiring health care, in general, and specifically nurses who are at the forefront of

Response and innovations of advanced practice nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A scoping review

“…Disruption from the pandemic resulted in the transformation of multiple aspects of care and healthcare administration; 10 articles describing this were categorized as ‘multifaceted’ innovations (Table 1). Seven described the response within a particular facility or organization (Bleazard et al., 2021; Duncan et al., 2021; Lucciola et al., 2021; Nelson et al., 2020; Pate et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021; Sayer et al., 2020) and three described regional responses (Franzosa et al., 2021; McGilton et al., 2021; Popejoy et al., 2020). Five articles included clinical nurse specialists, four included nurse practitioners, and one included multiple types of APNs.…”

“…Eight articles outlined measures aimed at preventing or curbing the spread of COVID‐19 (Bleazard et al., 2021; Duncan et al., 2021; Lucciola et al., 2021; McGilton et al., 2021; Nelson et al., 2020; Phillips et al., 2021; Popejoy et al., 2020; Sayer et al., 2020) with APNs responsible for obtaining and conserving personal protective equipment, teaching staff techniques for donning/doffing, and personal protective equipment storage. APNs educated staff by creating, and distributing guidelines and protocols, and communicating and interpreting policy changes from public health agencies (Bleazard et al., 2021; McGilton et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021; Popejoy et al., 2020). APNs were also a communication conduit between staff and organizational leadership to promote mutual trust and understanding (Bleazard et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021).…”

“…APNs educated staff by creating, and distributing guidelines and protocols, and communicating and interpreting policy changes from public health agencies (Bleazard et al., 2021; McGilton et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021; Popejoy et al., 2020). APNs were also a communication conduit between staff and organizational leadership to promote mutual trust and understanding (Bleazard et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021). APNs played a role in participating in workflow planning (Lucciola et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021), assessing nursing staff readiness for redeployment (Lucciola et al., 2021), planning and providing education and resources to redeployed nurses (Lucciola et al., 2021), and adapting their own role in response to organization needs (McGilton et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021; Sayer et al., 2020).…”

“…APNs played a role in participating in workflow planning (Lucciola et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021), assessing nursing staff readiness for redeployment (Lucciola et al., 2021), planning and providing education and resources to redeployed nurses (Lucciola et al., 2021), and adapting their own role in response to organization needs (McGilton et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021; Sayer et al., 2020). APNs also planned and supported logistical and structural changes to clinical care such as using telehealth (Nelson et al., 2020; Sayer et al., 2020), surge planning (Lucciola et al., 2021), creating new clinical care units (Bleazard et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021), establishing testing centers (Lucciola et al., 2021), and managing the care of COVID‐19 positive patients (Phillips et al., 2021; Popejoy et al., 2020). APNs responded to isolated patients by enhancing communication with families (Pate et al., 2021), leveraging technology to connect patients and families (McGilton, et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021), providing psychosocial support (Popejoy et al., 2020; Sayer et al., 2020), and helping patients obtain short‐term disability or letters of medical necessity to stay at home (Sayer et al., 2020).…”

“…APNs developed and provided education for staff or were the recipients. Various modes to deliver education were employed including simulation (Bleazard et al., 2021; Lucciola et al., 2021), online learning (Lucciola et al., 2021; Pate et al., 2021; Sayer et al., 2020), orientation sessions (Bernhardt, 2020; Proulx et al., 2020; Renke et al., 2020), self‐directed learning (Renke et al., 2020), precepted clinical training (Pate et al., 2021), and in‐person train‐the‐trainer sessions (Duncan et al., 2021). Education focused on the clinical unit or patient population, COVID‐19, infection prevention and control, mental health, and technology.…”