The BACCN and COVID: What have we learned?

In the unparalleled and extraordinary public health emergency in which we find ourselves, across the world, nurses stand, as they always do, at the front line. Nurses account for more than half of all the world's health care workers,1 providing vital services throughout the health care system. Around the world, they are demonstrating their compassion, bravery, and courage as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and never has their value been more clearly demonstrated. Extreme measures were taken to boost the critical care nursing workforce, with retired staff, Operating Department Practitioners, theatre, recovery, and ward nurses asked to join the critical care frontline.2, 3 The current situation will undoubtedly take its toll on our workforce, and the impacts are likely to continue over a significant period. These are highly stressful circumstances for health care professionals and for our patients. We strive to provide patients and their families with the best possible care, but at the same time, we must protect ourselves to avoid taking the virus home to our families or becoming ill ourselves. Seeing a colleague become sick and needing intensive care treatment is especially hard, leading us to consider our own mortality.