{"id":4605,"date":"2022-05-14T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heartandvascularmed.com\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2022-05-14T08:00:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T13:00:53","slug":"we-risk-dying-when-going-to-work-ukrainian-nurse-shares-her-message-on-nurses-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/?p=4605","title":{"rendered":"“We risk dying when going to work\u201d \u2013 Ukrainian nurse shares her message on Nurses\u2019 Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the explosions first went off on 24 February, I turned up the volume of my children\u2019s TV cartoons, so that they wouldn\u2019t hear the noise. I was very much in doubt whether to stay or leave, but as a medical surgical nurse, I quickly realized that my skills were needed here. So, I stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tetiana Freishyn has been a nurse for 17 years, with most of these spent in surgery. Since the war in Ukraine started, she has been working in the trauma and orthopedics department at the city hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk, in the west of the country.<\/p>\n

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On 12 May, WHO\/Europe marks International Nurses Day with a call to secure the safety of nurses like Tetiana and her colleagues \u2013 everywhere. As of 8 May, WHO has confirmed 200 attacks on health care in Ukraine since the war\u2019s outbreak, which have led to 75 deaths and 54 injuries. Attacks on health care include attacks on health facilities, transport, personnel, patients, supplies and warehouses. When people are prevented from seeking health care, either because the facilities have been destroyed or out of fear that they may become a target, they lose hope. The mental health toll wreaked by the war cannot be underestimated, affecting civilians and health workers alike.<\/p>\n

Tetiana says that, although her ward in Ivano-Frankivsk has so far been spared, the working conditions have been challenging.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe psychological burden is huge because the workload is heavier, and at the same time I am concerned for the safety of my children and my husband,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

A message of peace on International Nurses Day<\/h3>\n

When faced with the choice of staying or leaving in the midst of conflict, maintaining motivation can be difficult. But being a nurse with highly needed skills is what keeps Tetiana going.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nursing profession is my life; it\u2019s what gets me out of bed every day; it\u2019s the state of my soul,\u201d she says, adding that her message to all nurses on International Nurses Day is one of peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should have to be a nurse during a conflict, and I wish for all nurses to be able to go to work with joy. The health care profession is a peaceful one, and I hope that we can all go to work peacefully. As it is now, we risk dying when going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tetiana says the attacks have gone beyond hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen attacks on ambulances, and quite a number of health care professionals have died in the line of duty,\u201d she shares. \u201cNurses shouldn\u2019t die while performing their medical duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly need to upgrade our skills\u201d<\/h3>\n

The realities of the war have led to a series of new professional challenges for Tetiana and her colleagues.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe recurrent air alarms mean that you never know when your work is interrupted. We get a lot of open wound fractures caused by the ongoing violence. These are quite different compared to regular leg fractures, so we quickly need to upgrade our skills.\u201d <\/p>\n

Of course, another consequence of the conflict has been the high number of internally displaced people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSome of them are skilled health care professionals who come to work with us. We highly appreciate their help, and taking on new colleagues and functioning as a team adds to the number of things we need to adjust to,\u201d Tetiana explains.<\/p>\n

Like millions of nurses all over the globe, Tetiana continues to provide lifesaving care to people in need. Nurses\u2019 ability to practice and apply their skills is not only an opportunity to safeguard access to decent work; around the world the vast majority of nurses are female, so investment in nursing is also an investment in women and their role in global public health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen the explosions first went off on 24 February, I turned up the volume of my children\u2019s TV cartoons, so that they wouldn\u2019t hear the noise. I was very much in doubt whether to stay or leave, but as a medical surgical nurse, I quickly realized that my skills were needed here. So, I stayed.\u201dTetiana…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":4606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medicalnewstoday_com"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahvmed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}