Tomorrow Is Ours to Win or Lose: Responding to a Heightened Demand for Nurses Amidst a National Crisis

Abstract

911 -- the numbers that echo distress and invite rescue will live in United States history as the date our nation was attacked in a mindless, intolerable act of aggression that left thousands dead and wounded and millions inconsolable. September 11, 2001, will live in the American experience as the day in which our country faced our vulnerability, examined our values, and emerged unified and committed to a new order. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the safety of American society took place just as the national Call to the Profession, orchestrated by the American Nurses Association, was drawing to a close. For four days, representatives from a host of nursing organizations had explored the major dimensions of the nursing shortage and ways in which we can unravel and resolve the complex issues in health care, nursing education, and practice. The process we had used and the level of dialogue that emerged had been encouraging. It had become apparent that old approaches and sacred cows could be set aside as we worked together to respond to a higher good. Our hopefulness gave way to fear as we huddled together in a Virginia hotel, watching on television as fortresses of steel tumbled onto the streets of New York. With the NLN office and staff a few short blocks from the World Trade Center, the national disaster was all too personal. We tried to call home and connect with those we loved, just as, we learned later, those in the doomed buildings and airplanes did minutes before they died. As nurses, we are very familiar with the desire to hold onto human contact even as life fades away. As nurses, we have been privileged to accompany others on that final journey, and as nurses, we hold a special accountability for the health of our people in the days that lie ahead. I have been a nurse for a long time. Throughout my career, I have been blessed with outstanding opportunities to work with others in the provision of service and the preparation of the next generation of nurses. But, as I contemplate my new responsibilities as president of the NLN, I am awestruck by the magnitude of all that lies ahead. We in the nursing community will be called upon to respond to heightened demands for nurses amidst a national crisis. We will need to find ways to bolster the efforts of faculty members and clinical educators as they strive to enhance the competence of new nurses and help others in their goals for lifelong learning. …