24 nov 2015 Elizabeth Glaser wrote:
This is letter that I intend to send to The Lancet:
On Sunday, the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola issued a report in The Lancet suggesting reforms to avoid repetition of a similar disaster in the future. The “interdisciplinary” panel did not see fit to include any members with a background in nursing despite the vital role of our profession in the global response, our knowledge of operational aspects of public health, and the ongoing sacrifices those in nursing have made at the front lines of the outbreak.
Respectfully, who speaks now for the nurses in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, the United States, Europe, and the African Union who cared for those with Ebola? Who speaks for the nurses whose lives were sometimes placed at risk during the outbreak through the hubris of politicians, administrators, and, yes, physicians?
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When the policy makers, researchers, and high level clinicians are gone, there will still be nurses serving in remote posts in Central and West Africa, placing their lives at risk for Ebola, HIV, and Tuberculosis for want of masks, goggles, gloves, bleach, or, simply, running water.
If we wish to avoid a scenario similar to the current West African Ebola outbreak, there must be a radical shift in how we approach global health policy. The old, failed hierarchies must be abolished and new voices must enter the discussion. There is no longer any excuse which can justify the omission of our profession.
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emerging co-signatories include:
*Sheila Davis, Chief Nursing Officer Chief of Ebola Response Partners In Health
*Joanne M. Pohl, PhD, Professor Emerita The University of MichiganSchool of Nursing*
President, Haiti Nursing Foundation Board *www.haitinursing.org
*Barb Dehn Lecturer, Stanford University Physician Assistant ProgramFounder & CEO Blue Orchid Press
*Aimee Latta, RN, MSc Manager, Clinical Performance Improvement Columbia University Medical Center
*Jonathan Monis, RN, MSPH Secretary General Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates
+Elizabeth Anne Jones, BSN, CPN Pediatric Nurse Mentor CHUK University Teaching Hospital
Ministry of Health Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program
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8 dec Hello Elizabeth .. you posted a question today asking for anyone with links to Uganda. I have just commenced as Dean Nursing & Midwifery for the Aga Khan University School of Nursing & Midwifery East Africa. We have a campus and vibrant nursing programmes which I oversee in Uganda. I would be happy to connect.
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From Elizabeth Glazer
Lancet Global Health is an open access journal under in the Lancet "family" but it is a separate publication with a different editor than The Lancet . What I can say is that a basic search on the Lancet Global Health site had papers in which truly interdisciplinary groups, nurses, physicians ,and public health experts, all sharing authorship. I have no idea why that is the case , but I am happy to see it....I think that the "leaders' in Global Health , such as Harvard and other major universities , can set an example by inviting health experts that are nurses on their panels, by being called to task when they fail to do so, both privately , at first ,and then we have to be willing to up the ante to calling them out in public, if need be.
We need to be sure of our facts before we start , and then know who to suggest as experts, if asked.We need to push WHO to consider a nurse to head that organization and to have more nurses be in charge of areas/departments.Nurses can do health related podcasts , and write for general publications with a broad reach.
Finally this isn't about getting points, it is about sharing our expertise and experience working in conjunction with our colleagues in medicine, pharmacy, public health, and basic sciences to improve health policy, programs, and planning to improve health outcomes for all the populations we serve.Support each other no matter how we entered the profession, what area we work in or what nursing qualification/degree that we have. We are all nurses.
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interesting paper here on difficulties of caring for children with eboola in ht humid climates with space suit type design nurses issued from airconditioned western hospital standards http://www.ghdonline.org/uploads/Ebola_Paper.pdf free ghd membership may be needed to download
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\Elizabeth
As the epidemic wanes, please don't forget our colleagues in West Africa; while things are slowly getting better, the conditions that contributed to the outbreak are still very much in evidence and health care providers in Liberia, Sierra Leone ,and Guinea will need support for strengthening their health system for quite some time...
We need to do more than write letters , we have to act to make change, to step up to lead, but this is a good place to start.
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Elizabeth Glaser, M.A., M.S., ACRN, RN-BC is a doctoral candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. Elizabeth is certified in HIV/AIDS and Community/Public Health nursing. She has more than 20 years of experience working with underserved populations in domestic and international settings. She worked for a decade providing nursing care for men and women living in shelters and on the streets of Boston. During that time, she completed the Zinberg Fellowship in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has been a clinical mentor to HIV care staff in South Africa, and to nurses at a provincial hospital in Kenya. She currently is working on an economic evaluation of a new form of malaria prevention and is a collaborator with the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD). She is a past president of the Boston Chapter of the Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS care and is currently on the board for the Global Nursing Caucus.
We need to do more than write letters , we have to act to make change, to step up to lead, but this is a good place to start.
==============================
Elizabeth Glaser, M.A., M.S., ACRN, RN-BC is a doctoral candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. Elizabeth is certified in HIV/AIDS and Community/Public Health nursing. She has more than 20 years of experience working with underserved populations in domestic and international settings. She worked for a decade providing nursing care for men and women living in shelters and on the streets of Boston. During that time, she completed the Zinberg Fellowship in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has been a clinical mentor to HIV care staff in South Africa, and to nurses at a provincial hospital in Kenya. She currently is working on an economic evaluation of a new form of malaria prevention and is a collaborator with the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD). She is a past president of the Boston Chapter of the Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS care and is currently on the board for the Global Nursing Caucus.