Dear AALNA Member,

HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES DAY and WEEK!!!
As we celebrate Nurses Week, we are faced with the most difficult healthcare crisis I have witnessed in my nursing career. Beloved residents, colleagues and family members are in danger or have passed away due to this hidden monster. Known treatments, infection prevention techniques, use of ventilators, medication trials, isolation and self-quarantine have not stemmed the flow of this insidious disease.

What HAS gotten in the way of COVID-19 is YOU.

Nurses in every care setting around the world show up for work, regardless of the danger to themselves. Nurses know there is not enough PPE to go around, but they go to work. Nurses know there is no standard of care for this disease, but they go to work. Nurses know they will have to improvise PPE with scarves, coffee filters, shower curtains, raincoats, or big black garbage bags, but they go to work. Nurses comfort those separated from their loved ones while trying to keep them safe or alive. Nurses bear the brunt of death and dying, trying to hold their patients’ or residents’ hands during those last moments assuring them they are not alone. Nurses make up silly signs, mug for the cameras, wipe tears from their exhausted faces. Nurses work with licensed and unlicensed colleagues to try to stem the spread of this infection. Nurses leave work, strip off clothing that may be contaminated and go home to take care of partners, spouses, parents, and children. Their day never stops until they fall into restless sleep, knowing tomorrow will be the same and bring the same challenges until this crisis is resolved.

Nurses are the heart and soul of the medical profession, the most trusted profession in the world. You prove that to be right every time you sign-in to your shift, hold someone’s hand while they are dying or frightened or lonely, make a protective gown out of a raincoat, contact physicians and families with changes in a resident’s condition, prevent a fall, improve a policy or procedure, educate a staff member, teach infection prevention or deescalate a difficult behavior in a resident with dementia. You, make a difference every day.

In the midst of this crisis you are truly the heroes on the front lines. We at AALNA thank you for all of your, perseverance, risk taking and absolute dedication to our residents and their families.
Bless you all and keep safe

Calvin Groeneweg
President of AALNA
and The members of the National Board of Directors