Speak truth to power and consolidate the nursing visibility gained during COVID-19

Abstract

Aim: To provide a perspective on the visibility of nursing gained during the COVID-19 pandemic and propose strategic options for nurses to consolidate their expanded roles and influence.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing inequities across the world. Factors preserving discrimination weakened during the emergency are now being re-established by neo-liberalist influences that dismiss the true scale of the disaster and shape the narrative in ways that increase public risk and render nurses invisible.

Sources of evidence: All evidence drawn from publicly available sources is presented through the lens of the authors' nursing, management, education, policy and research experience.

Discussion: Nurse advocacy will be needed during future decades of pandemic control and recovery and be in a position to deliver appropriate care and services.

Conclusion: For nurses at all levels to remain visible, important, valued and respected, they need to be informed, engaged and willing to make a stand to preserve the hard-won reputational gains of the last 30 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Implications for nursing practice: Nurse advocacy and engagement are needed to maintain public awareness of the ongoing risks and safety options associated with the pandemic.

Implications for health and social policy: Nurses and other health practitioners need to reveal the true level of devastation that continues to occur and guide the focus of political and administrative strategies in response to COVID-19 impacts on services and public health orders.

Keywords: COVID-19; Capacity building; nursing role and scope; power; visibility.