It seems apparent that in the severe current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses are under considerable pressure. They have to deal with a plethora of issues – starting from the protection of their health and ending with caring about patients. The case is even worse when it comes to high morbidity or mortality patients. A nurse is to keep in mind that he or she is an essential factor that might be a vital ray of bliss for a patient surrounded by the dark of the virus. Hence, nurses should demonstrate a significant extent of endurance, as well as mental health. It might be assumed that mindfulness meditation – if implemented properly – may serve as a great foundation for this. This paper aims to provide a solid rationale regarding this meditation’s appropriacy in the mentioned conditions, as well as a plan on how to keep this program efficient.
To begin, it seems important to give a proper definition of mindfulness meditation. “Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us” (Mindful, n.d., para. 1). Then, according to Mindful (n.d.), “Mindfulness meditation asks us to suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness” (para. 6). Hence, this practice allows perceiving the world from a positive perspective, which is essential for one in a dire situation. It seems apparent that nurses who care for high mortality patients are involved in such a case and need some additional mental strength from within. Meditation might provide this strength, which may lead to several prominent outcomes. For instance, they would constantly express a great extent of positive energy that is important for any type of patient.
The plan for the education of nurses within the scope of the theme might be formulated as follows. The first part of the program will be theoretical. They will be informed about significant results that the proper acquaintance with the meditation can bring via e-mail and social media. Nurses will get a detailed schedule that will describe each step of the process. There will be two introductory lectures during the first week. I will estimate which days nurses are less loaded and choose these days for the theoretical introduction. The latter will give a coherent train of thought regarding the importance of mindfulness meditation for a nurse – especially in such conditions. I will provide several essential sources so that my stakeholders could even strengthen their knowledge of the program.
Moreover, during the first week, I will ask nurses to undertake several practices such as walking meditation and mindful listening. These simple actions will make the stakeholders adhere to the founding principles of my initiative subconsciously. These principles are a patient perception of any occasion, searching for kindness and light in everything, and acceptance of the thought that any problem may be overcome. The point is that nurses will feel the progress day by day, as well as aim to learn about this meditation more. Such a state of affairs will be a basis for practical classes that will start from the second week.
The latter will contain everyday practices that last – approximately – for an hour. I will guide nurses on their path to become significant practitioners of mindfulness meditation. The classes will provide them with the opportunity to stay focused for a long period, feel the force of their minds, and sense the strength in every thought that affects surrounding reality (Mindful, n.d.). It might be assumed that during two weeks, nurses will be ready to practice mindful meditation on their own – without my guidance. Given such possible fast progress – due to the simplicity of the initiative and its substantial benefits – nurses will be able to reduce their stress during the pandemic significantly. Their advanced state of mind will allow them to face any challenge boldly and confidently.
Then, it seems reasonable to emphasize that the program does not imply a great effort to maintain enthusiasm for my intervention after it is finished. The essence of mindfulness meditation is that it becomes a sort of way of living if, again, implemented adequately. It may be expedient to organize some meditation meetings to feel the spirit of support and mental strength, but this will not be a necessity.
To conclude, the core of mindfulness meditation, as well as its appropriacy for nurses in the contemporary conditions of the pandemic, was discussed. It was found that such an initiative might contribute to the substantial improvement of the stakeholders’ mental health, which is vital for their profession, especially today. The proposed plan for the program’s implementation is divided into two weeks. The first one is mostly theoretical, and the second is purely practice-orientated. It is also claimed that there will be no need to encourage nurses to practice meditation because of the latter’s essence.
Reference
Mindful. (n.d.). Getting started with mindfulness. 2020, Web.
It might be assumed that my scholarly project can demonstrate a number of important DNP essentials. First, it is the clinical scholarship and analytical methods for evidence-based practice, which may be perceived as a foundation for the whole mindfulness program. I have conducted substantial research on the topic of mindfulness meditation approaches, techniques, and exercises, as well as tried to support every statement, suggestion, and proposal with relevant academic sources. Throughout my DNP program, I aspire to adhere to the best scholarly practices, grounding the design of this project on appropriate and significant evidence.
Second, I have to apply proper leadership and organizational skills so that the program could be undertaken in a coherent and consistent manner. The primary aim of the project is to provide as many nurses caring for high mortality patients during Covid-19 with the help of mindfulness meditation as possible. Hence, I am about to deal with a great number of participants and organize all our activities – starting from the first and ending with the twelfth week – appropriately. I decided to follow the principles of transformational leadership that will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the participants’ needs and requirements within the scope of the program.
Third, I will utilize information technology for the improvement and transformation of healthcare. I will use a number of online platforms such as Google Classroom and Zoom in order to ensure the transparent monitoring of progress and facilitate the project’s classes conducting. It is visible that these modern technologies might contribute to the expedient organization of the program so that it could bring noticeable results.
It should also be noted that this DNP project’s idea contains breadth and depth knowledge in the framework of the mindfulness concept. As mentioned above, this program demonstrates the essence of scholarly methods for evidence-based practice, which implies substantial analysis and analytics on the defined area. Hence, a considerable number of peer-reviewed and reliable sources were studied in order to get acquainted with the mindfulness concept exhaustively.
Then, given the application of contemporary information technologies and the permanent collection of the participants’ feedback, there will be a broad area for innovation and creativity to affect outcomes. Moreover, according to the best practices of transformational leadership (Robbins & Davidhizar, 2020), I will listen and take into account all these participants’ opinions and, probably, will figure out some notable opportunities for the creative process’ improvement. For instance, one taking part can suggest some unknown mindfulness exercises appropriate for him or her that – as it might turn out – will be suitable for the entire group.
There are also areas of expertise and passion that I bring that I can build on. For example, my primary target is to become a proficient nurse manager. This project implies considerable effort and preparation within the scope of my leadership skills that are essential for my aspired profession. What is more, the program requires continuous academic analysis and research, which might be considered as a significant background for my development as a scholar.
Finally, the above arguments and statements indicate the following skill sets needed to develop in order to successfully implement my DNP project. First, it is my ability to conduct reliable scholarly research to make the program evidence-based. Second, it is my capability of being an eminent leader and manager. Third, it is the skill of using information technologies and applying their beneficial features to the aims of the designed mindfulness meditation program.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the whole world. However, numerous countries have differently responded to the crisis, which resulted in various infection rates internationally. Spain is one of those European countries that have suffered from the problem more severely than others. Thus, the paper will highlight the essential variation in new COVID-19 cases in Spain and explain what factors have caused this fluctuation.
The Spread of COVID-19 in Spain
To begin with, one should mention that the virus has affected multiple Spaniards. The graph below depicts the number of new COVID-19 cases in Spain from March till September (Johns Hopkins University of Medicine n.d.). It is evident that there have been two waves of coronavirus in the country under consideration, and the first one was successfully overcome. That is why it is reasonable to start the analysis from determining why the coronavirus fiercely affected Spain at once.
When many world countries were suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain was tranquil. According to Tremlett (2020), Madrid medical emergencies only expected a few coronavirus cases. That is why the government did not take any preventive measures to protect its population from the disease. Consequently, sports events, massive demonstrations, and political conferences kept taking place in early March (Tremlett 2020). That state of affairs resulted in an active spread of coronavirus throughout the country. The government should have implemented specific measures, but it took 24 hours between Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, announced the state of emergency and imposed it (Tremlett 2020). This time was sufficient for the population to disperse across the country. Thus, one can mention that Spain’s low state capacity, including the government’s poor decisions, resulted in the virus spread.
One should also emphasize that various Spain’s regions witnessed different infection rates. For example, Madrid accounted for over 600 cases per 1,000 citizens, while fewer than 100 cases per 1,000 citizens were found in Cordoba (Oto-Peralías 2020, 2). According to the researcher, this distribution is explained by “the negative correlation between COVID-19 cases and temperature” (Oto-Peralías 2020, 5). Consequently, the following information will describe what specific measures helped Spain overcome the crisis.
Spain’s Response
The Spanish government took particular measures to protect the population’s health and mitigate the situation’s economic consequences. Orea, Álvarez, and da Silva (2020, 2) mention that the government imposed social distancing, self-isolation, and lockdown to limit coronavirus spread regionally and nationally. Retail, entertainment, and educational establishments were closed to prevent people from gathering. Requisition of sanitary supplies, obligatory medical controls, and quarantines were useful measures as well. Police forces and fines were used to make the population follow the steps above. Furthermore, the pandemic implied significant economic consequences, and the government tried to address them as well. According to the KMPG (2020), most deadlines for tax procedures were extended, while an exception referred to self-assess taxes or file informative returns. The Spanish government did not extend some tax deadlines because it required resources to maintain armed forces and provide its services (Ganguly and Thompson 2017, 55). Numerous Spaniards highly appreciated all these government’s decisions to stop coronavirus.
One can mention that the preventive measures above allowed Spain to increase its state capacity. On the one hand, it started actively using armed forces to maintain order and control the lockdown. On the other hand, these measures fundamentally improved Spain’s legitimacy. Ganguly and Thompson (2017, 61) explain that people tend to accept their state’s authority when “the state is perceived to be effective.” Consequently, the actions above turned to be practical in stopping the propagation of COVID-19, and appropriate relief measures took place.
The Second Wave
However, the graph above has demonstrated that the late summer witnessed the second wave of coronavirus, and it is reasonable to identify why it happened. Firstly, the new cohort of COVID-19 cases is explained by the lengthy lockdown. Thus, the measure that had allowed the government to overcome the crisis resulted in its further evolution. It refers to the fact that young people started actively socializing after a long lockdown, which was a suitable condition for the spread of coronavirus (Gallardo and Martuscelli 2020). Secondly, the summer crisis appeared because of changes at the sub-government level. Gallardo and Martuscelli (2020) explain that the Spanish government allowed the country’s 17 autonomous regions to develop their own responses to the local outbreaks. Even though this idea seems appropriate, it does not lead to positive outcomes. It is so because regional governments are not allowed to impose any preventive measures that could limit fundamental rights without a judge’s approval. Consequently, this measure resulted in the fact that regions could not implement timely measures because of bureaucratic services of poor quality, which again refers to low state capacity.
It is evident that it would be challenging to overcome the second wave with the help of the same measures. That is why Spain requires some substantial and long-term actions to protect its population from COVID-19. A useful option is to invest in developing a public health system and integrate it with primary health care (Gallardo and Martuscelli 2020). The government needs many resources to cope with the task, but this system will provide more citizens with access to sufficient care, which will protect them from health issues. Furthermore, epidemiologists admit that the coronavirus spreads because it is challenging for the authorities to trace people’s contacts. That is why Sánchez has mentioned that regional leaders will have 2,000 soldiers at their disposal to deal with contact-tracing work (Gallardo and Martuscelli 2020). These measures have the potential to protect Spain from the COVID-19 pandemic in the long run.
Conclusion
The coronavirus has significantly impacted Spain and its citizens. COVID-19 came abruptly and covered the entire state quickly. It happened because of Spain’s low state capacity, meaning that the government failed to analyze the situation correctly and took appropriate measures. In addition to that, the weather was suitable for the propagation of the virus, and different temperatures explain the uneven distribution of COVID-19 cases across Spain’s provinces.
This information stipulates that specific measures should have been taken. They included efforts to protect people’s health, the use of armed forces to control the maintenance to these measures, and actions to mitigate economic consequences. These steps allowed Spain to increase its state capacity and overcome the crisis. However, the relief measures provided people with more freedom of movement and regional governments with freedom of action. Simultaneously, the local governments could not benefit from that option because they required national approval to implement substantial preventive measures. As a result, the coronavirus keeps propagating across the country. Consequently, the paper has demonstrated that low state capacity, including a high level of bureaucracy and ineffective government’s decisions, is the leading factor in the spread of the COVID-19. It means that Spain should increase its state capacity in the long run to overcome the crisis.
Ganguly, Sumit, and William R. Thompson. 2017. Ascending India and Its State Capacity: Extraction, Violence, and Legitimacy. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
KPMG. 2020. “Spain: Tax Developments in Response to COVID-19.” Web.
Orea, Luis, Inmaculada C. Álvarez, and Cosmo Helder Ferreira da Silva. 2020. “How Effective Has the Spanish Lockdown Been to Battle COVID-19? A Spatial Analysis of the Coronavirus Propagation across Provinces.” Web.
Oto-Peralías, Daniel. 2020. “Regional Correlations of COVID-19 in Spain.” OSF Preprints.Web.
The Coronavirus pandemic has become the main reason for discussion in the new decade. This is not surprising — the microscopic virus has caused more than 320,000 deaths worldwide in a few months and 92,000 in the United States (“Google News,” n.d.). Many politicians around the world have forcefully imposed restrictive measures to prevent the virus from spreading. Nevertheless, the pandemic has demonstrated the inadequacy of the health system.
Economic Indicators
GDP
The primary macroeconomic indicator: shows the total cost of all services provided and products manufactured in the country.
Employment
An employment relationship with an employer that brings economic benefits: the high level indicates the degree of prosperity of society.
Unemployment
A high level reveals a lack of balance between job seekers and actual jobs. Could cause an economic crisis.
Well-Being
Not a real economic indicator, but what citizens feel is a subjective picture of how they perceive the economic situation.
The Pandemic Macroeconomy
GDP
It is evident that the decline in enterprises’ productivity, the closure of service centers, and social service delivery points will eventually lead to negative GDP indicators.
Employment
The restrictive regime has resulted in many workers being remotely accessed — this has created a technological evolution of existing software tools.
Unemployment
However, some of the employees have been fired or dismissed: this leads to an increase in the number of consumers against the background of a decline in the number of production facilities, which causes a social and economic crisis.
Well-Being
The U.S. economic system has shown a paradoxical effect — on the one hand, the available reserves allow for cash transfers to citizens, and on the other hand, the lack of effective investment in health has led to high mortality rates.
Business crisis
The enterprises were not prepared for the crisis: the branches are closed, the finances are not coming in, the working personnel is being reduced.
The effects of the microeconomic crisis can be summarized as follows:
oproduction cuts;
othe drop in prices;
ojob cuts;
othe growth in the number of bankrupt companies;
oa sharp drop in wages.
Socio Economic
The Coronavirus pandemic has the potential to cause more socio-economic severe consequences. Poverty among the population is predicted to increase for the first time since 1998 (Mahler et al., 2020).
The crisis has shown the immaturity of the U.S. health care system — lack of planning and risk management, lack of financial stability to scale up the work of clinics.
It is interesting to note that the rules of hygiene during self-isolation have brought new values into society’s life — the importance of health care, the possibility to limit social contacts, and visits public spaces.
Healthcare Organizations
WHO
Engaged in sponsoring research, public awareness, and laboratories. The main mouthpiece of the planet.
CDC
Less responsibility than WHO. However, CDC is accountable for monitoring and sharing information, resolving private situations, and transferring ambassadors and agents to hot spots.
Current Policies
Restrictive Measures
President Trump has introduced an emergency regime within the United States that involves the closure of public facilities, restaurants, parks, and beaches. This is a substantial measure, as many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of quarantine conditions to curb the rate of infection.
Cash Benefits and Financial Assistance
Trump’s administration approved economic reform, according to which every American received more than $1,000 (Carney & Lane, 2020). This measure was aimed at stimulating the solvency of the population in the conditions of increasing unemployment in order to ensure the effective circulation of money in the market.
Easier Access to Hospital
The President urged U.S. medical organizations, including private ones, to provide free assistance in testing the population. The federal budget funds cover even the expenses of uninsured citizens (Abelson & Sanger-Katz, 2020).
Proposed Policies
Information program
Due to a lack of public awareness of the seriousness of the virus, protest movements have emerged. It would be best to refer to a policy of raising public awareness about hygiene, vaccination, and how the virus is spread.
Strict quarantine
Trump introduced quarantine measures in early March, but with time, when the disease rate was not yet declining, governors began opening cities. Obviously, these actions are dictated by economic goals. Nevertheless, when people’s lives are at stake, one can not bet on money. It is essential to return the quarantine or to ensure that all citizens observe preventive measures.
Socioeconomic Support
Field Tests
The creation of free mobile testing points could solve geographical distance problems from clinics, reducing the likelihood of social interaction.
Clinic Support
Often Americans go to private clinics because they are closer, more accessible, or provide better services. The authorities must help the private sector at this time.
Socioeconomic Barriers
Difficult to Inform
Inserting advertising banners, videos, and posts are effective for younger audiences, but older Americans do not trust the Internet. During the pandemic, it was not easy to organize training courses for retirees and to encourage them to be more sensitive to coronavirus news.
Cost of Treatment
Even with cash benefits, not all Americans can afford expensive treatment and prevention. Despite Trump’s words, not all clinics provide free treatment. In addition, the daily purchase of gloves, masks, and disinfectants strongly affects citizens’ financial reserves.
Benefits for Healthcare Organizations
Increasing the Culture
First, broad public awareness will result in an improved scientifically proven culture, which will result in an improved nation’s health indicators.
Reducing the Burden on Clinics
Second, the strict quarantine will reduce the burden on health care organizations by allowing them to postpone to remain operational.
More Resources
Third, increased economic support from the state will give clinics more resources to implement successful and efficient medical care.
It is time to reevaluate achievements in the field of health and look at a new day. Our system has shortcomings, and the proposed policy will solve them!
The covid-19 pandemic is a global health crisis today and the greatest challenge the world has recently faced since the second world war. Ever since it was first identified in Asia, the crisis has affected every continent except Antarctica. It was first reported in Wuhan province, a good business hub in China that caused more than eighteen thousand and had infected over fifty thousand people. The pandemic proves to be more than a health crisis as time goes by. It can devise catastrophic social, political, and economic effects with long-lasting effects.
People are losing their jobs while others whose nature of their work cannot allow them to work from home cannot physically avail themselves at their workplaces due to the restrictions in place to help curb the spread of the deadly virus. Covid-19 everyone in different ways, almost all of the infected persons will develop placid to moderate sickness and then recover without needing hospitalization. The elderly and those with any serious medical condition are most likely to develop severe complications if infected with the virus. The typical virus symptoms are fever, tiredness, and dry cough, while the less common signs and symptoms include sore throat, headache, loss of taste or smell, and a rush on the skin.
While the spread and impact of the pandemic will vary in many countries, it will likely see an increase in inequalities and poverty on a global scale, creating an urgency in the sustainable development goals for most countries. The covid-19 virus is spread through body fluids such as saliva droplets or nose discharge when an infected person coughs or sneezes. To slow the spread of the virus, it is advisable to wash their hands with soap and clean running water, sanitize, avoid touching their faces, cover their mouth while sneezing, practice social distancing, and wear face masks. Upon assessing the impacts of the coronavirus on countries and economic structures, and the vulnerable groups in society, it is essential always to be informed and ready to adapt measures taken by the governments to come back from the crisis without leaving anyone behind.
Discussion
Saskatchewan and the Atlantic province of Canada during the early onsets of the pandemic, two regions moved swiftly to implement tight border restrictions, with a compulsory quarantine for fourteen days to anyone coming into the provinces accompanied by strict measures within their borders. The imposed closed border has seen the regions record a low number of COVID-19 cases as the rest of the country struggles with new strands of the mutating virus and is even in fear of an imminent third wave of the coronavirus.
The Atlantic people were conservative and quick to act with consistent messages concerning public health. The region’s low population density and its geographical location have contributed significantly to controlling the pandemic. On the policy front, strong coordination between the provinces’ medical officers of health has aided in steering the pandemic at bay in those provinces (Fauci et al., 2020). The two provinces are part of the Atlantic bubble, a particular travel area restriction created on July 3rd, 2020, in the wake of the pandemic’s second wave. The bubble continued to allow the region’s local economy and its tourism operation to function while the cases and death resulting from the pandemic were cubed.
The health system of Saskatchewan focuses on any measures that can be undertaken to mitigate and delay the covid-19 pandemic effects. These measures include; encouraging residents to sanitize, self-isolate, and maintain social distancing, allocating enough resources to set up more testing centers, and using aggressive contact tracing for those with the covid-19 virus. By February 2020, during the onset of the pandemics’ first wave in the region, the Saskatchewan province had prepared a Covid-19 preparedness plan to help them control the spread of the pandemic in the area.
Saskatchewan COVID-19 Preparedness Plan
The local Saskatchewan Health Authority used the H1N1 Flu pandemic plan to construct a set-up that would help guide and prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic. With this framework, the province’s health authority planned to address surveillance of the pandemic, public health measures, public health measures, clinical guidelines, communications about the pandemic, psychological consideration, lab, and testing services, and continuity of health services (Safari, 2021). These plans were updated following the currently available information about the Covid-19 pandemic. The project had assessments on every aspect, including the likelihood of the pandemic spreading to Canada as a whole, the risks it paused, how Canada planned to respond, and how Saskatchewan prepared to react as a province.
Current State in Canada
According to the assessment of the plan, the likelihood of Canada experiencing an outbreak of the pandemic was considered high; the risk to the general population was deemed low but had the potential to shift rapidly. After noting that, the plan was confident that even though the pandemic would spread at a first-rate, their health system was well prepared to respond and deal with the pandemic and its impact.
Current State Risk
When the plan was prepared, it was noted that the vulnerable population with chronic health issues had a higher risk of being infected with the virus. The danger in Canada would vary based on the travel history and type of activities people would be involved in while out of the country; those traveling on a cruise ship and those who would participate in gatherings had a high risk of being exposed to the virus. It highlighted that to reduce the risks; individuals were required to observe health etiquette such as washing their hands, staying indoors if ill, and practicing social distancing measures, for instance, avoiding all forms of body conduct.
Federal Response
A special committee of health medical officers in Canada was put in place to respond quickly to the pandemic. The committee has focused on coordinating federal, territorial, and provincial preparedness across all health sectors in Canada. The Canadian national microbiology laboratory performs diagnosis and testing for the root cause of the virus causing Covid-19 with the hope of creating a cure. The laboratory works in collaboration with the territorial and provincial health laboratories.
Saskatchewan’s Response
The plan was to detect the COVID case early enough and possibly delay the spread of the pandemic. The medical health officers. The Saskatchewan health authority authorized the activation of the province emergency operations center. They also established several options one could choose from for testing the virus in individuals, such as being tested at home and being tested at a health facility. Modeling the pandemics’ potential scenarios and their impact was made to keep the local planning informed.
A health system indicating how ready they were for the pandemic was created to show how various services were to adapt to meet the demands of a COVID-19 patient while also continuing to serve the healthy ones. The plan had an update in April 2020 to reflect Saskatchewan’s province specified data that was not available when the program was drafted. The region’s offensive strategy aimed to ensure that health care was easily accessible and provided integrated care by giving the patient all the necessary care.
COVID-19 Response in Atlantic Canada
As the rest of Canada continued to deal with the devastating third wave of the COVID-19 virus, the easter parts of Canada had become a haven of normalcy. Many of the cases reported in those areas were reduced, and many harsh restrictions were removed (Merkley et al., 2020). The Atlantic provinces of Canada have less than Five hundred reported active cases, while regions like Ontario have more than 30,000 active cases with new ones identified daily in record numbers.
The Atlantic province region of Canada was recognized as a unique success story by the media. The region had strict regulations on travel outside the region; this helped minimize the number of new cases recorded while keeping at bay those already registered. The region’s leaders have attributed the success to residents’ ability to follow directives and make sacrifices for the common good (Béland et al., 2020). In the Atlantic regions of Canada, the provincial governments have regularly adopted policies to help avoid severe illnesses and deaths; they simply prioritized human lives over businesses. Other factors include;
Remote and Small Population
The Atlantic provinces have a low population density than regions like Ontario; this helped the regions avoid a severe outbreak like the other regions. However, policy differences between provincial and territorial governments responsible for their respective healthcare networks have played a role in keeping the virus at bay. While the lockdowns that accompanied the first wave of COVID-19 last spring were primarily the same across the country, the post-lockdown era has seen various policy interventions, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
In the Atlantic Canada areas, the restrictions were stiffened into outright bans on non-essential travel from other provinces on several occasions, with exceptions made for work, medical appointments, and humanitarian purposes. The different areas in Canada have had the inter-province travel ban that requires those traveling to self-isolate the moment they arrive. They have also had recommendations against traveling unnecessarily movement, but these regions have been sluggish in enforcing the isolation policy. This allowed people to freely move within provinces, contributing to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Citizens Goodwill
Without the political will and leadership to transform goodwill and sound science into simple, practical policy, the region’s collective ethic would be inadequate. Canadians have demonstrated their eagerness to make self-sacrifice in the interest of their safety. A majority of the residents in the Atlantic region support the measures to help prevent the spread of the pandemic. They are supportive of the actions even under contradicting circumstances (de Lannoy et al., 2020). With these measures, some Canadian areas have experienced anti-lockdown and anti-mask protests; the protestors have played a leading role in public debate. The media frames these initiatives as politically divisive.
Small groups of opposition may impact public discourse by attracting mass media coverage and using social media to distribute their messages. This is a tactic used by activists of all colors to accomplish objectives that may or may not be in the public interest for a variety of reasons. With reliable information, a government does not require consensus for it to protect the public’s health. Governments are supposed to decide what is suitable for the people and not the ethics when facing a crisis.
Effective Ways of Managing the Pandemic
Enact A Staggered Transition to A New Normal
The belief that an immediate return to normal would not be feasible is at the heart of change management. Instead, the transformation will be carried out in a staggered manner, with culture, systems, and services progressively reopened, possibly in new forms. During each process, restrictions may be modified, and previous stricter measures may be re-implemented (Habersaat et al., 2020). If people believe they are or will soon be returning to normal during this complicated process, their behavior can hasten the emergence of a second wave of the outbreak. The COVID-19 changeover entails identifying and communicating particular phases ahead of time while also allowing for the complexity of the outbreak’s evolution, preparing people for expected changes to the response strategy, and transparently communicating what is understood, and what is unknown, and the parameters used to make decisions.
Balancing Individual rights against the common good
Governments worldwide are forced to impose temporary limits on human rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of speech, and the right to practice religion in groups due to the pandemic. Cultural differences influence willingness to behave for the good of society, and it is more prevalent in communist countries than in nonconformist countries, where maximizing personal gain is the priority. Efforts to protect public health, on the other hand, should uphold fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, privacy, due process of law, non-discrimination, and religious freedom (Odedra et al., 2020). Restrictions that are not justified can jeopardize public support for the pandemic response strategy and public confidence in the authorities.
Prioritize those who are most at risk of adverse outcomes
The elderly are the most vulnerable individuals in society, surveys and quick evaluations aid in identifying priority groups that are most likely to suffer. Basic needs, such as food, safe housing, health care, social care, and jobs, should be considered in national response strategies and an awareness and recognition of the challenges these various groups face.
Conclusion
The COVID 19 pandemic has posed a considerable problem globally since the second world war. The pandemic has led to a worldwide health crisis, with most countries enforcing partial or complete lockdown. In what began as a health crisis, the coronavirus spread has caused more problems that are beyond healthcare. As a result of these restrictions, there have been numerous ripple effects of the virus, including a slowed economy and overwhelmed healthcare systems on the brink of collapse. Being a new virus, it might be considered the great equalizer in the 21st century as all countries grapple with coming out of the effect of a pandemic. No government or community was sufficiently prepared to handle this situation. However, there are regions of the world whose responses to the pandemic were exemplary. Even though most areas were taking a beating from the effects of COVID 19, these regions have come out of the impact of the pandemic better than they ever were.
Among the places where the management and containment measures worked substantially well are Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces in Canada. As the virus continued to spread across the world’s regions, the area of Saskatchewan put in place some measures to make them prepared to deal with the virus. They laid out the plans, which were implemented adequately once the first case of the coronavirus was reported. Instead of not waiting for the pandemic storm to pass, they proactively set up measures that allow its residents to transition to the containment measures as the new normal. On the other hand, the Atlantic region in Canada also put out containment measures that would help them protect their population. As the rest of Canada struggled with the rising number of infections and death, this region implemented strict standards on movement from outside, ensuring that the residents were protected from importing the disease.
As the world struggles with the consequent waves of coronavirus infections, the successful management of the pandemic by Saskatchewan and Atlantic provinces in Canada provides a ray of hope that the strict containment measures are feasible and proper way to deal with the global health crisis. There is a need for more countries to undertake an appropriate analysis of such regions to help them deal with the disease. There is even more hope as more vaccines are rolled out into more areas of the world. The rollout of these vaccines will also require proper and timely management of the programs, as witnessed in the spread of the virus. The successful management of the virus is based on how more regions will adopt the strict planning and implementation of the vaccination programs. As a result of this, the role played by the two Canadian provinces will be used as a blueprint for the proper management of the coronavirus pandemic.
As more regions come to terms with the fact that handling the pandemic is the new normal, they must do so through learning from areas where we’re able to manage the virus. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge the ripple effects of the pandemic and provide practical ways that will be used to mitigate the general population from the adversative impacts of the same. The pandemic is bound to remain a global issue for a longer time than anticipated. The proposed measures by health organizations and economic actors must be implemented.
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Habersaat, K. B., Betsch, C., Danchin, M., Sunstein, C. R., Böhm, R., Falk, A.,… & Butler, R. (2020). Ten considerations for effectively managing the COVID-19 transition. Nature human behaviour, 4(7), 677-687.
Merkley, E., Bridgman, A., Loewen, P. J., Owen, T., Ruths, D., & Zhilin, O. (2020). A rare moment of cross-partisan consensus: Elite and public response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 53(2), 311-318.
The American Nurses Association believes that nurses are vital to the health of the nation. Today, counting more than four million, nurses are the largest part of the US healthcare workforce. Even though no other country in the world has as many nurses as the US, there is an impending shortage. As per the US Bureau of Labor estimations, in the next few years, the demand for nurses will be growing at a 16% rate each year (Haddad, Annamaraju & Toney-Butler, 2020). To fill the gap, the US healthcare system might need eleven million nursing cadres. If the workforce is not enriched with more trained professionals, it is readily imaginable how much emotional and physical strain the increased workload will put on existing nursing staff. It comes as no surprise that nurses experience burnout, a state of complete exhaustion triggered by prolonged stress.
Nursing burnout is now considered an occupational illness and a health hazard in the United States. According to Cañadas-De la Fuente et al. (2015), burnout is an extreme response to work-related stress that encompasses three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion occurs due to an inadequate emotional overload as a result of interactions with colleagues and patients (Cañadas-De la Fuente et al., 2015). It is not uncommon for emotionally exhausted nurses to suffer from anxiety and depression that may translate into psychosomatic symptoms, such as weakness, headaches, and insomnia. Depersonalization manifests itself through cynical attitudes toward coworkers and patients (Cañadas-De la Fuente et al., 2015). Lastly, unrewarding work experiences may result in reduced personal accomplishment because affected nurses tend to develop a negative self-concept and suffer from poor self-esteem.
Concrete numbers regarding the prevalence of nursing burnout vary. Kronos (2018) reports that as many as 85% of nurses feel fatigued on a regular basis, while 63% are on the verge of experiencing full-fledged burnout. Monsalve-Reyes et al. (2018) have found that low personal accomplishment was the most common burnout symptom, occurring in 31% of nurses and followed by emotional exhaustion (28%) and depersonalization (15-16%). Nursing specialization may be a risk factor on its own: for instance, emergency room nurses are more prone to depersonalization than their primary care colleagues that build more long-term relationships with patients (Monsalve-Reyes et al., 2018). Among other risk factors are personal (e.g. neuroticism) and organizational (poor staffing, long shifts, lack of autonomy in the workplace) (Cañadas-De la Fuente et al., 2015). Psychological reasons are out of the scope of this paper as it focuses on organizational aspects that lead to increased burnout rates.
The issue of nursing burnout cannot be dismissed because it has detrimental effects on organizational culture, patient safety, and health outcomes. Wright and Khatri (2015) discovered that toxic personal relationships were a risk factor for adverse psychological and behavioral responses. Therefore, a workplace environment that is unsafe to medical staff also puts patients at risk. A less obvious, but no less dangerous consequence is the degradation of organizational culture in which the norms of bioethics and medical deontology are no longer respected, be it due to exhaustion or a newly formed cynical attitude (Lever et al., 2019). Furthermore, as indicated by Edmonson and Zelonka(2019), one-third of nurses leave or consider leaving because of an unsafe work environment that is not conducive to good mental health. Staff turnover and attrition are undesirable outcomes given the existing shortages and the high workload.
Medical errors compromising patient safety may also be a result of nursing burnout. Hall et al. (2016) write that medical errors can be explained by the latent and active, system and individual factors. The human factor is a major contributor to medical mistakes, and today, there is a general consensus that medical precision is closely tied to mental well-being. Hall et al. (2016) argue that burnout and errors may even have a circular relationship and be part of a self-sustaining system. An exhausted nurse makes mistakes, and the heightened awareness of one’s faults only adds to reduced personal accomplishment, which is part of the burnout concept.
To date, there have been many attempts at introducing policies and initiatives that would tackle the nursing burnout issue. They can be roughly divided into two groups: addressing personal factors (low self-efficacy, neuroticism) and addressing organizational factors. The present paper proposes better staffing as a response to the silent pandemic that is nursing burnout. McHugh et al. (2017) discovered that better nursing work environments and lower patient-to-nurse ratios were reliable predictors of patients’ IHCA (in-hospital cardiac arrest) survival. Inadequate nursing work environments resulted in a 16% reduction in the survival rates. Moreover, McHugh et al. (2017) found that with each additional patient per nurse in medical-surgical units, the likelihood of survival was 5% down. The study implies that improved patient outcomes may be achieved through fostering a psychologically safe environment and keeping hospital units adequately staffed.
Today, several approaches exist toward better nursing staffing, each of which deserves consideration within this proposal. The goal of these initiatives is twofold: they aim simultaneously at existing staff retention and new talent attraction through offering advanced working conditions. Firstly, it should be acknowledged that nurses are often assigned administrative tasks that divert their attention away from their direct responsibilities. Not only is paperwork exhausting, but it also prevents them from forming stronger bonds with patients, which contributes to the burnout risk. For example, nurses may benefit from rapid response teams, which enable nurses to request a team of clinicians to take action without the hurdle of paperwork. Furthermore, a clear definition of responsibilities and mutual support, especially when patients are in crisis, may help with exhaustion.
However, transforming work processes may fall flat without making more radical changes, such as transforming the entire workplace culture. Successful approaches toward creating a better environment for retaining old and hiring new staff may include mentorship. New nurses should feel welcome and taken care of; it is important to orient them during the first few weeks and offer help. Another element of a healthy organizational culture may be exploring opportunities for all hospital staff to increase their education levels, exercise their autonomy in choosing shifts, and take up leadership roles in policy-making and regulation.
Nursing burnout is the silent pandemic in the field that leaves affected staff emotionally exhausted, depersonalized, and suffering from poor self-image. Among the risk factors are personal, such as neuroticism, and organizational – poor staffing, long shifts, and lack of autonomy in the workplace. The problem cannot be neglected because the mental well-being of hospital staff has an impact on the medical error rate and patient safety. One way to tackle the issue is through making organizational changes that aim at retaining existing nurses and hiring new ones by offering them desirable work conditions. The transformation of work processes should be accompanied by the transformation of workplace culture.
References
Cañadas-De la Fuente, G. A., Vargas, C., San Luis, C., García, I., Cañadas, G. R., & Emilia, I. (2015). Risk factors and prevalence of burnout syndrome in the nursing profession. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(1), 240-249.
Haddad L.M., Annamaraju P., & Toney-Butler T.J. (2020). Nursing shortage. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing.
Hall, L. H., Johnson, J., Watt, I., Tsipa, A., & O’Connor, D. B. (2016). Healthcare staff wellbeing, burnout, and patient safety: A systematic review. PloS One, 11(7), e0159015.
Kronos. (2018). Kronos’s survey finds that nurses love what they do though fatigue is a pervasive problem. Web.
Lever, I., Dyball, D., Greenberg, H., & Stevelink, S. (2019). Health consequences of bullying in the healthcare workplace: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(12), 3195-3209.
Monsalve-Reyes, C. S., San Luis-Costas, C., Gómez-Urquiza, J. L., Albendín-García, L., Aguayo, R., & Cañadas-De la Fuente, G. A. (2018). Burnout syndrome and its prevalence in primary care nursing: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Family Practice, 19(1), 1-7.
Wright, W., & Khatri, N. (2015). Bullying among nursing staff: Relationship with psychological/behavioral responses of nurses and medical errors. Health Care Management Review, 40(2), 139-147.
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected students’ performance in Miami Dade-County due to restrictions on in-person learning. Particularly, K-12 schools in the county have reported widening achievement gaps and declining performance levels among students. This policy analysis paper outlines four possible alternatives that Miami Dade-County education authorities could adopt to make sure that K-12 students are not left behind academically due to the ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, they should develop targeted outreach programs for students who are struggling to cope with the pandemic, based on the results of educational progress monitoring and review assessment reports. Secondly, authorities should connect curriculum development processes to digital learning experiences. The goal is to create better synchrony and alignment between the curriculum development process and students’ digital learning experiences. Thirdly, policymakers need to train teachers regarding the latest online tools, trends and developments affecting K-12 education through seminars and training programs. Fourth, a “do nothing option” is proposed, which means that authorities can refrain from coming up with new strategies to mitigate the effects of the health crisis on learning outcomes and allow the situation to “play out” as it may. This proposal is hinged on the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still an unfolding event and the effects of linked variables on learning outcomes cannot be holistically accounted for. The four policy alternatives outlined above are expected to be evaluated based on their economic, efficiency, equity, administrative feasibilities and effectiveness. Subject to this evaluative framework, developing targeted outreach programs is outlined as the chosen policy alternative for this study. It is the best strategy to follow because it comes at a low cost to both school-level and district-level administrators and allows them to create focused interventions for addressing specific learning gaps. Broadly, based on the insights highlighted above, key sections of this paper review existing policy programs, analyze the framework for evaluating their effectiveness, and outlines policy alternatives that could address some of the implementation gaps associated with the COVD-19 pandemic and its impact on the educational outcomes for K-12 learners in Miami-Dade County.
Problem Statement
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Miami-Dade County education sector have created concerns that K12 students are lagging academically due to restrictions on in-person learning, which are associated with negative learning outcomes. Relative to this assertion, Rado (2020) says, “School closure disrupts the delivery of in-person instruction and critical services to children and families, which has negative individual and societal ramifications” (p. 1). Additionally, increased stress levels among teachers, a rise in school dropout rates, and heightened challenges in validating and measuring learning outcomes are associated with long periods of school closures and negative educational outcomes (UNESCO, 2021). These findings reveal that school absenteeism has an impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of both students and teachers alike (Garcia & Weiss, 2020). Therefore, there is a common understanding among education stakeholders that prolonged school closures negatively affect students’ achievement levels. To support these findings, figure 1.1 below shows that worsening grade scores are associated with school absenteeism. The findings were obtained from a mathematics-based assessment for eighth graders in the US.
Figure 1.1 Worsening performance for mathematics assessment associated with school absenteeism for eighth graders in the US (Source: Garcia & Weiss, 2020)
The negative effects of the COVID-19 health crisis on student achievement levels has also been associated with the loss of student achievement outcomes. For example, researchers estimate that the pandemic has led to a loss of about 30% of student achievement progress in the past year (Kuhfeld, et al., 2020). Moreover, the percentage of students who have made relative gains in their academic record declined from 79% in 2019 to 57% in 2020 (Hooker, 2020). These findings mean that the health crisis has forced students to lose 30% of their learning gains, compared to the pre-COVID levels.
Statistics also show that the effects of school closures on academic performance have demonstrated peculiar trends with stronger achievement gaps observed in certain subject areas, such as mathematics and sciences, while languages and humanities are relatively lowly affected (Garcia & Weiss, 2020). Relative to these findings, disparities in learning outcomes have also been observed across different grade levels, such as across 3-8 for mathematics as described in figure 1.2 below.
Figure 1.2 Disparities in learning outcomes for mathematics across grades 3-8 (Source: Kuhfeld, et al., 2020)
Additionally, according to figure 1.2 above, the achievement performance levels for mathematics students was between five and ten percentages lower than the pre-COVID year 2019. Indeed, since the re-opening of schools in late August 2020, students have recovered from lost school time with only 50% of typical learning gains observed, relative to a normal school year (Kuhfeld, et al., 2020). Figure 1.3 below further shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has created performance gaps in mathematics, with statistics showing that students have been affected to the extent of having to repeat certain grade levels to be at par with their counterparts.
Figure 1.3 Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of mathematics students between grades 3-8 (Source: Hooker, 2020).
This drop in performance means that achievement levels in certain subject areas are more profound than others are. Relative to this finding, the Northwest Evaluation Association conducted a study in Miami Dade County by comparing the academic achievement gaps before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that most students who are between their 3rd and 5th grades lost 30% of their literacy skills during the pandemic period (Kuhfeld, et al., 2020). Again, mathematics was singled out as having the biggest drop with a 50% reduction in achievement outcomes (Kuhfeld, et al., 2020). Several reasons have been voiced to explain why there has been a drop in performance across several subject areas in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a Harvard-sanctioned survey noted that the drop in the performance of these subject areas was because most families paid little attention to mathematics and sciences in the first place (Hooker, 2020). Therefore, students are offered little support from parents in these subject areas.
Reports also indicate that the current global health crisis could significantly widen achievement gaps among different cohorts of students in Miami Dade County. Particularly, discussions about race have emerged from these developments because those from minority populations, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (Florida Department of Education, 2020a). Racial inequality is an issue that has been previously discussed among teachers, policymakers and community members with diverse opinions characterizing the debate. For example, in a town hall discussion involving students from Dade County, it was observed that the default setting in the education system has always been associated with “whiteness” (Cetoute, 2020). At the same time, there have been limited discussions about how other races have played a role in contributing to the country’s social, political and economic life, thereby creating a success narrative centered on racial superiority (Cetoute, 2020). It has permeated in the country’s education system and created classes of insensitive new generations of students who are unaware of the social and historical burden of racism that has remained alive in America’s pubic life for centuries and affected the performance of some students.
The above findings suggest that most students are unware of the plight of their peers and are likely to propagate the same thinking in the new learning environment. For example, Perrin and Turner (2019) describes this problem by explaining that African-American and Hispanic populations in the US have low levels of internet access, which undermines their ability to cope with the use of digital learning tools in a new learning environment. In line with this observation, statistics show that about 82% of white students report having a laptop or computer at home, compared to only 58% and 57% of the African-American and Hispanic populations, respectively (Perrin & Turner, 2019). These disparities have further been highlighted through variations in broadband connection with the same patterns observed across different races. For example, 79% of white households reported having a broadband internet connection, while only 66% of the African-American population and 61% of Hispanic households had the same type of connection (Perrin & Turner, 2019). Figure 1.4 below highlights the depth of these disparities.
Figure 1.4. Percentage of US adults who claim to have digital technologies (Source: Perrin & Turner, 2019)
If left unchecked, education inequalities brought by the COVD-19 pandemic could exacerbate because some students may struggle to adjust to the new learning environment, while others have an easier time doing so. The link between these social struggles and income inequality, among other socioeconomic issues that have a direct impact on how fast students adapt to a new learning environment, create the potential for more inequality to be institutionalized in the education system. For example, online learning has been proposed as a solution to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Dade County education system. However, adopting such a strategy is based on several assumptions, such as students having an equal access to digital learning tools, a safe and productive learning environment at home, and sufficient parental support, just to mention a few.
As alluded in this document, students come from diverse backgrounds and may not have the same opportunities to adopt online learning. To demonstrate this problem, Camera (2021) gives an example of how students from Northshore school district, which is privileged, almost all white, has households incomes of more than $100,000 per annum, and broadband internet would have an easier time adapting to the new learning environment compared to students lacking the same type of resources and support (Camera, 2021). Therefore, the complexities brought by the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate education inequalities that exist today if some of the proposals to address the crisis are adopted as they are. Moreover, health fears among students, workers, and education staff may also significantly impede the quality of learning due to poor motivation and adaptability to the new learning environment (Florida Health, 2020). This situation may cause prolonged uncertainty in the learning environment, thereby worsening the quality of education for K-12 learners (Brown, 2020).
This policy paper outlines recommendations that the State of Florida could do to make sure That K-12 Students are not left behind academically due to the effects of the ravaging pandemic on the education sector. Failure to address these concerns could lead to learning losses and an increase in inequality within the education system. Consequently, there is a need to implement learning recovery programs and prepare for future shocks to the education system to avert the disruptions that have been witnessed from the current pandemic.
Review of Existing Policy Programs
The overall goal of evaluation is to assess whether policies are achieving their intended goals, or not. This definition is consistent with the recommendations of Kraft and Furlong (2017), which suggests that policies are not made in a vacuum because there are significant social, political, and economic ramifications underlying their formation and implementation. Florida District’s school intervention plan has laid out specific policy plans to bridge achievement gaps caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are outlined below.
Providing Additional Instructional Time
Under emergency order DOE ORDER NO. 2020-E0-07, K-12 schools are supposed to provide additional instructional time to students who are posting poor performance through supplementary summer and weekly programs (Florida Department of Education, 2020c). The goal is to compensate for lost instructional time and they mirror similar plans adopted by K-12 schools in Southern Florida (Goodhue, 2021; Florida Department of Education, 2020b). For example, Monroe County School District has adopted similar policies by providing additional instructional time to students who are having learning difficulties (Goodhue, 2021). These remedial lessons have helped to bridge the gap in learning outcomes for different cadres of students.
Virtual Learning
Since the onset of the pandemic, authorities and education stakeholders in Florida have advocated for the adoption of virtual learning methods as a supplementary education tool to carry out learning activities. Before, the pandemic, virtual learning only accounted for a negligible portion of K-12 educational activities because most education services were conducted in-person, with the exception of online public schools. While virtual learning continues to gain traction in the education system, concerns about inequalities and limited access to digital learning resources have forced stakeholders to adopt a mixed approach to education reopening. Consequently, there is a trend to merge both in-person and virtual learning procedures to aid the reopening of schools. Therefore, students are back in class either full time in-person learning or through virtual classroom setups.
CDC-Aligned Programs
In-person learning procedures at K-12 schools have been formulated based on the guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). They have been developed based on the need for educational institutions to practice social distancing, sanitization, and wearing of masks as preconditions for the reopening of schools. However, some sections of education stakeholders have opposed such plans and sued state and county authorities in Miami for approving them in the first place due to concerns about new infections (Florida Health, 2020). For example, teachers’ unions have expressed concerns about the safety of the teaching staff if in-person learning is allowed to resume. Pasco County Teachers Union is among such bodies that have filed lawsuits to challenge the decision by their local authorities to allow in-person learning (Solocheck, 2020). Similar debates have characterized decisions by Broward and Miami-Dade Countries to reopen schools (Rado 2020). The failure of education officials to agree on the modalities for opening these learning institutions has led to the neglect of performance achievement gaps created by the pandemic. Consequently, there have been no policies developed to address the issue.
Evaluative Criteria
Most policy decisions are evaluated based on a pre-determined set of criteria that are specific to the learning environment. For purposes of this report, the policy evaluation process is designed to appeal to K-12 students in Miami-Dade County. The following considerations should be considered for analysis.
Cost of the Program: Policy decisions aimed at closing learning gaps in Florida need to be assessed based on their economic feasibility. Two impact categories could be used to undertake the evaluation: cost to the school district and to parents. This dual framework of review would provide a holistic understanding of the economic viability of the proposed plans, including costs attributed to the schools for adopting new recommendations.
Equity: Equity refers to the ability of an education system to be fair and impartial in the provision of education services to different classes of students. It is primarily concerned with evaluating policies based on whether all students get an equal opportunity for success, or not (WATERFORD, 2019). In this paper, the potential of the COVD-19 pandemic to exacerbate racial, grade-level, subject-level and socioeconomic inequalities among student populations have been highlighted. They are associated with four impact categories: inter-racial, socioeconomic, subject-level and grade-level inequalities
Administrative Feasibility: K-12 schools should have sufficient administrative capacity to implement proposed programs. This capability needs to be proven at the school administrative level and within the schools. They outline the two impact categories of assessment that should be formulated for assessing the administrative feasibility of the proposed plans, while, at the same time, being paralleled with each other to create synchrony in the achievement of education performance goals.
Effectiveness: The effectiveness of a policy or program refers to how well the proposed guidelines achieve their intended goals. For purposes of measuring the effectiveness of policy guidelines to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of K-12 schools, three impact categories could be used for assessment: procedural, substantive and transactive effectiveness. Procedural effectiveness translates to the ability of policies to meet their accepted principles and provisions, while substantive effectiveness refers to the ability of the same policies to achieve their established goals (Pradhan et al., 2017). Additionally, transactive effectiveness can be assessed by evaluating how well procedural meet substantive goals.
Policy Alternatives
Education stakeholders in Miami Dade-County could adopt four policy alternatives to address academic achievement gaps in K-12 schools. They are outlined below.
Develop Targeted Outreach Programs: Current policy proposals have been focused on providing additional instructional time to different student groups. Based on the need for focused learning, they should consider developing targeted outreach programs for special cohorts of students, subject to the outcomes of progress monitoring and review assessment results. Outreach interventions may be categorized according to students’ grade levels, racial and ethnic diversity, subject-level differences, and learning modalities, as proposed by the Florida Department of Education (2020b). The school administrators should oversee the outreach programs because they will be integrated with school educational curricula. In other words, schools will be encouraged to develop their programs, while district educational authorities provide technical assistance and funding. The outreach programs will be implemented as in-class demonstrations and online tutorials for both in-person and virtual learning sessions.
Connecting Curriculum Development to Digital Learning Experiences: School authorities should consider redesigning learning curriculum to reflect digital learning experiences. This strategy should be executed at the school administration level through project-based learning to have a deeper understanding of students’ learning experiences during the virtual learning sessions and redesign the curriculum development program to reflect the outcome. Relating the academic content to the students’ online learning experiences would encourage them to find relevance in their educational programs, thereby fostering creative thinking, which is critical for K-12 learners’ cognitive development.
Staff Training: To some degree, teachers are already equipped with the technical skills needed to undertake online learning. However, as Wotto (2020) says, no matter the level of technical skills an employee possesses, there is still some room for improvement. This is why staff training is proposed as an alternative policy intervention to support online learning. School administrators should oversee the program and the plan may be implemented through seminars, technical skills training programs and include training regarding content writing, data analysis among others digital learning activities.
Do Nothing: School authorities can refrain from coming up with new strategies to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 health crisis by allowing current programs to continue without making significant changes to them. This proposal is hinged on the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still an unfolding event, thereby making it difficult to account for all variables that could affect learning outcomes. Therefore, in this policy alternative, current programs will continue unabated.
Evaluation and Recommendations
Evaluation
Table 5.1 Policy Evaluation Criteria
Policy criteria
Impact category
Do Nothing
Staff Training
Connecting Curriculum Development to Digital Learning Experiences
Develop Targeted Outreach Programs
Effectiveness
Procedural effectiveness
1
2
2
3
Substantive effectiveness
1
2
3
3
Transactive effectiveness
1
2
3
3
Subtotal
3
6
8
9
Cost of the program
Cost to the school district
1
2
2
3
Cost to parents
1
1
1
3
Subtotal
2
3
3
6
Administrative feasibility
School Level
3
2
3
3
Administrative Level
3
3
1
3
Subtotal
6
5
4
6
Equity
Inter-racial inequalities
1
2
3
3
Socioeconomic inequalities
1
2
3
3
Subject-level inequalities
1
3
3
3
Grade-level inequalities
1
3
3
3
Subtotal
4
10
12
12
Total Score
15
24
27
33
Recommendation
Based on the policy criteria described in table 5.1 above, developing targeted outreach programs is the best option to pursue in this analysis because it has a score of 33 while other policy alternatives have scores of 15, 24 and 27. The most important feature about developing targeted outreach programs is its high level of effectiveness because it provides focused interventions for students who are lagging behind academically and those who may be adversely affected by pre-existing inequities in education. Furthermore, it provides a basis for comparing the performance of students who are in the general and targeted outreach programs.
Proposed Data Collection Activities
Based on the policy alternatives outlined above, future studies should focus on collecting primary data through surveys and interviews to assess the impact of the policy alternatives in addressing the academic achievement gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic. These primary data collection techniques should be designed to collect information from school principals, teachers, and administrators. The surveys should be administered virtually to teachers from different K-12 schools in Miami-Dade County to give a status report on the effectiveness of proposed policies. Academic data should also be collected as secondary research materials that would help to explain the findings obtained from the surveys and interviews. These Supplementary pieces of evidence could be obtained from education reports, government publications, books, and journals. Both primary and secondary sets of data are critical in understanding the effectiveness of existing policies because the surveys and interviews would provide subjective data, while the published information would provide statistical support.
References
Brown, D. J. (2020). Nearly 3,000 more COVID-19 cases related to FL schools: At least 100 infections in each of eight counties. Web.
Pradhan, N.S. et al. (2017). Analyzing the effectiveness of policy implementation at the local level: A case study of management of the 2009–2010 drought in Yunnan Province, China. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 8(1), 64-77.
Rado D. (2020). Amid a public health crisis called COVID-19, our schoolchildren will be left behind. Web.
Wotto, M. (2020). The future high education distance learning in Canada, the United States, and France: Insights from before COVID-19 secondary data analysis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(2), 262-281.
The ongoing coronavirus crisis caused a tremendous disturbance to the world and the healthcare system. Inadequate preventive measures led to a surge in the number of infected people and deaths worldwide. Furthermore, the high hospitalization rate and shortage of clinical staff resulted in sleep disturbance among medical personnel. Moreover, many ethical norms were violated by some hospital administrators.
Research objectives
The first objective of this project was to determine the global insomnia prevalence among clinicians and review the health issues associated with disturbed circadian rhythm. The second objective was to discuss the ethical problems related to hospital staff management during the pandemic.
Causes of Increased Workload and Sleep Deprivation among Healthcare Workers
Two main reasons for increased hospital workload are poor staff management and incompetent governmental measures for viral spread prevention. For example, 90% of evaluated countries failed to demonstrate timely responses (Ibrahim et al., 2020). Moreover, inadequate management in healthcare institutions resulted in the worsening of the problem. Specifically, poor staff support from hospital administration caused burnout among healthcare workers (Challener et al., 2021). Therefore, it is essential to develop methods for lowering the workload for clinicians to reduce medical errors.
Prevalence of Sleep Disturbance among Clinicians during the Pandemic
The prevalence of sleep disturbance among clinicians increased significantly during the pandemic. When the coronavirus crisis started, some Chinese hospitals published data about increased insomnia among nursing staff to 39%, as shown on this map (Sagherian et al., 2020). An online survey among American nurses showed that 40% of the participants had mild to moderate insomnia (Sagherian et al., 2020). The global prevalence of sleep disturbance was found to be 43% (Al Maqbali et al., 2021). Insomnia elevated the prevalence of other physical and mental disorders among clinicians.
Biological Consequences of Sleep Disturbance
Mental and physical well-being determines the job performance of healthcare workers. Chronic insomnia was found to cause abnormal appetite, insulin resistance, weight gain, hypertension, and generalized fatigue (Kim-Godwin et al., 2021). Hospital staff often works long shifts and compensate for the lack of sleep with unhealthy nutrition that damages their health.
Ethical and Cultural Issues
Some healthcare organizations violated ethical values that affected medical personnel. For example, hospitals lacked enough personal protective equipment for the staff at the beginning of the pandemic (Turale et al., 2020). This situation was an example of a breach of the Code of Ethics that requires providing protection to employees (Turale et al., 2020). Moreover, the inability to provide emotional support to all patients caused depression among clinicians and a loss of trust in hospital leaders (Donkers et al., 2021). The pandemic was disturbing to all countries, but some healthcare organizations failed to provide workplace safety to hospital employees.
Some cultural beliefs may cause emotional disturbance among healthcare professionals. For example, age stigmatization still happens in hospitals, valuing younger personnel less than older workers, preventing managers from hiring young graduates, and resulting in a shortage of staff (Gharzai et al., 2020). Another type of stereotyping is the lack of understanding of this infection. For example, many healthcare workers who underwent quarantine measures were stigmatized, harming clinicians’ emotional well-being (Ramaci et al., 2020). Therefore, hospital managers should ensure that staff receives proper psychological support during the pandemic to maintain productivity.
Solutions for the Problems
Improving staff management should become the priority for healthcare organizations. Firstly, a support system for medical personnel required to stay in quarantine should be developed (Challener et al., 2021). Secondly, the hiring process should be improved to reduce the existing workload. Thirdly, governments need to develop a more efficient system for response to public health emergencies (Ibrahim et al., 2020). Overall, these three ways can help improve hospital staff management and improve employee performance.
The COVID-19 has impacted people in long-term facilities more than other people since massive outbreaks have been noted in many care centers around the globe. The disease has affected everyone including visitors, care workers, and residents. Residents of a long-term care are more vulnerable because of their underlying health conditions and advanced age. They require better protection to avoid contracting the disease since they are more likely to develop complications that can cause prolonged implications or even death (Massarweh et al. 343). Residents should be prioritized in every effort to fight the disease including the vaccination process. This paper intends to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care facilities, and consider the cost, quality, and access to health care services.
Infected people can be asymptomatic, or develop critical, severe, and moderate symptoms where asymptomatic are the patients who are not showing any sign of the disease apart from testing positive. The cost of treating them is usually low because they do not require any medication though they need monitoring. The cost tends to rise with the severity of the disease where people in critical and severe conditions require ventilators and other services such as close monitoring of heartbeat.
The high cost of treatment and limited health care facilities are barriers to treatment services. Poverty obstructs many people from receiving quality medication simply because they cannot afford it. Unfortunately, the prevalence of other conditions such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and diabetes are usually high in poverty-stricken areas since they are poorly managed. This increases their vulnerability and the likelihood of developing COVID-19 related complications in case they become infected.
The pandemic has compromised the quality of health care services in many ways including increasing pressure on the available health resources and creating fear that discourages people from seeking health services for other conditions. An increase in demand for hospital services that are not in line with the increase in capacity implies that care centers struggle to meet the sudden rise in the number of patients. This hinders the quality of care associated with burnout and excessive overload since practitioners are forced to work for longer shifts. Moreover, the cost of treating and managing the condition tends to increase because of the need for isolation services where positive individuals are separated from other people.
The pandemic has impacted the stakeholders of long-term care and hospitals including providers, payers, and patients. While providers have been overwhelmed by the extensive rise of the need for health care services, payers have been forced to spend more to cover the involved cost. Acute and severe patients require life support machines to maintain the functioning of vital organs increasing the cost of treatment. Most patients develop moderate or mild symptoms, 5% develop a critical illness while 10-15% develop a severe condition (Basmi et al. 76). People with mild or moderate symptoms tend to recover within 2 and 6 weeks (Basmi et al. 80). However, some symptoms can persist or linger for several weeks or months after the recovery. Critically ill patients are likely to develop long-lasting health effects because of medical complications. Some of the symptoms that may persist include body aches, nausea, diarrhea, confusion, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, loss of smell and taste, cough, shortness of breath, and congestion.
In some cases, COVID-19 has prolonged medical conditions hindering patients who have recovered from regaining their previous health. Risk factors for extended symptoms include mental health, obesity, and high blood pressure. It interferes with various body organs such as the brain, lungs, and heart, and interferes with musculoskeletal and mental health. Damages to lung tissues cause restrictive lung failure while damages to heart muscles cause heart failure. Poor mental health is associated with sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. One should ensure good ventilation of indoor spaces and keep away from crowded places. Facemask is an essential preventive tool that everyone should use to prevent spreading or contracting the virus.
COVID-19 has caused a negative outcome to my personal life in many ways since I have to adhere to the provided guidelines such as cleaning hands frequently with running water and soap for a period exceeding 40 seconds and maintaining social distance. Unlike in the past, I am now maintaining proper hygiene practices including covering the mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or disposable tissue when sneezing or coughing. I am no longer touching the mouth, nose, and eyes and I am now maintaining a physical distance of no less than a meter. The condition has restricted my movements since I am only leaving the house to buy food and other important items.
COVID-19 has affected people with low immunity, more particularly those in long-term facilities. Since the condition is highly contagious, it has infected many people around the globe and is considered a pandemic. The cost of treatment depends on the severity and developed systems where asymptomatic patients incur the least cost (Massarweh et al. 344). The high number of patients has created pressure on the available health facilities hindering access to those services. Poverty obstructs people from seeking health services because they are too expensive for them. These factors compromise the quality of care and hinder the delivery of desirable medical support.
Works Cited
Basmi, Wadii, et al. “Distributed and scalable platform architecture for smart cities complex events data collection: Covid19 pandemic use case.” Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing vol 12, no. 1, 2021, pp. 75-83.
Massarweh, Nader N., Kamal MF Itani, and Melanie S. Morris. “The VA MISSION Act and the Future of Veterans’ Access to Quality Health Care.” Jama, vol. 324, no. 4, 2020, pp. 343-344.
Setting up intensive care units (ICUs) with non-critical care nurses can be more challenging than we can think it is beneficial. The article Rapid Deployment of Critical Care Nurse Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Marks et al. (2021) explains the clinical support and training needed by non-ICU nurses to handle critical COVID-19 patients in a new care facility established in the United States New York. The new facility brought together non-ICU nurses and ICU nurses, taking the form of critical care education specialists (CCEs) and experienced buddies (Marks et al., 2021). However, because treatment began at the same time as setting up the facility, it was not possible to conduct regular training to enlighten non-ICU nurses before practicing as ICU nurses. The shortage of ICU resources and care specialists limits alternatives, which made the COVID-19 care facility in New York and elsewhere in the world resort to using non-ICU nurses. The lack of skills among non-ICU nurses created the need to organize in-practice educational programs to equip them with the necessary skills for ICU performance. The article focuses on a suitable model for delivering such education, say a team-based model. Therefore, before deploying non-ICU nurses to work in ICUs, there is a need to train them using the appropriate model, as succinctly discussed in this reflection paper.
Main body
Healthcare practitioners providing care in ICUs should be equipped with the requisite skills. As such, ICU nurses are the ones with the required competence. Emergencies such as one caused by the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 virus can create impromptu healthcare needs such as an increased number of ICU nurses. With a shortage of ICU nurses, it becomes necessary to utilize non-ICU nurses. When non-ICU nurses are tasked with ICU nurses’ roles, they should be trained to acquire essential skills for optimal performance. Ideally, it is advised healthcare practitioners in ICUs should either be ICU nurses or trained non-ICU nurses (Marks et al., 2021). Such education encompasses employing a distributed practice approach with small groups and using critical care education specialists and the buddy system to support non-ICU nurses in the critical care context—the so-called team approach.
Having trained non-critical care nurses to deliver services in the COVID-19 patients’ ICUs is important in myriads of ways. The COVID-19 critical care units pose more challenges that require nurse competence to overcome. These shortcomings include difficulty in infection control, resource limitation, the need to protect oneself as a nurse, and adaptation of services to the rapidly evolving Coronavirus situation. Training programs prepare not only prepare non-ICU nurses for transition into critical care nurses, but it also enables them to be more knowledgeable and acquire the confidence to answer questions and explain things (Marks et al., 2021). Unlike non-critical care nurses, trained ICU nurses are well-acquainted with numerous things. For example, trained non-ICU nurses may be able to identify drips that paralyze people, an uncommon knowledge among non-ICU nurses who are not trained (Marks et al., 2021). Simulation coupled with a debriefing in training programs mitigate non-ICU nurses’ stress.
The findings of the reviewed study are applicable when delivering training programs in the wake of an emergency such as the COVID-19 crisis, which required a surge in critical care nurses. As suggested in the article, it is ambient to encourage non-critical care nurses to transition into ICU nurses in the face of a health crisis. In implementing such programs, it is vital to use distributed practice model with small groups, which is narrowed down to nurse clinical care support and didactic instruction (Marks et al., 2021). Moreover, the education model that is good for adoption includes shorter, more frequent training besides engaging non-ICU nurses in hands-on experiences. Hand-on experiences actualized through simulations would enhance psychological perception realia in training, and through it, non-ICU nurses get a safe environment for practicing newly acquired skills. Indeed, when facing an emergency, more critical care nurses are needed, and this can only be achieved by equipping non-ICU nurses with skills to practice as ICU nurses.
Dealing with COVID-19 presented a tight situation coupled with many surprising events. One of the events is revealed in the reviewed article. Surprisingly, non-ICU nurses were shifted to work in the COVID-19 ICU unit set up in New York City without training them (Marks et al., 2021). Ordinarily, these nurses were subjected to an awkward environment where they survived in their duties, which were dominated by a trial-and-error approach before they were trained. Honestly, the provision of care in ICUs is crucial to be trusted in the hands of inexperienced individuals.
Summary
In summary, non-ICU nurses can only adapt to providing critical care by accessing clinical support and training. Clinical support is provided by a buddy system or critical care education specialist. On the other hand, the most suitable training approach is didactic since it enables non-critical care nurses to learn new skills and can also be enhanced through distributed practice. Undeniably, distributed practice allows educators to have sessions with the small group, making it possible to have hands-on experiences. The reviewed article has addressed a shocking situation of non-ICU nurses providing critical care in the COVID-19 ICU in New York City without training. Care in ICUs is too sensitive to be left in the hands of health practitioners with minimal experience.
