Black nurses seek mental health support during pandemic

Black nurses seek mental health support during pandemic

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For some, Thompson cannot arrange for them to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit.

“There were times when I was afraid to go to work because of the unknown,” Thompson said. “Am I going to be a good nurse for my patients? Am I going to make a mistake?”

Nurses are often the first medical profession a patient will see, and most nurses have great contact with patients throughout their care, said Maysa Akbar, chief diversity officer of the American Psychological Organization. In addition to the stress they experience as medical professionals, black people are generally more likely to have sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness than white adults, according to Mental Health America.
Black nurses are also dying from the virus at an excessive rate. Nearly 18% of American nurses who died from Covid-19 death and related complications as of September were black, but according to Black Nurses United, blacks make up only 12% of the nurse population.

Thompson says there are times when she ‘absolutely defeated’ comes home, and on those days she gives herself the opportunity to process her emotions by talking to her family and watching television.

“If I don’t take care of myself, I can not turn around and go back to my next shift and be a good nurse,” Thompson said.

She has so far not sought professional support for mental health.

Black adults face mental health challenges

More than 17% of black adults in the U.S. had a mental illness in 2019, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. But people in the Black community can hardly go to mental health care, said Cheryl Taylor, chair of the School of Nursing at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

She said it’s important to feel safe when taking up a profession for mental health care, and it’s not easy for black people, who have a history of not being respected in the mental health world.

Black people often receive lower-quality mental health care, says Shalonda Kelly, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. According to the American Psychological Association, they are also less likely to receive culturally competent care.

One way to increase the chances of blacks getting quality mental health care is to see a mental health worker of the same race, Kelly recommended.

A client might think, ‘this person might understand what I’m going through and might not consider me inferior,’ Kelly said.

This can be difficult, she said, because it is much easier to search for male or female psychological preferences than one colored person. According to the APA, only 4% of American psychologists were black as of 2015.
Take note of the mental health of your children in this pandemic

It is also important that therapists allow their patients to feel comfortable about racism and discrimination, Akbar said.

If patients “do not talk about how racism could have been depression in the first place, we are leaving out a large part of the therapeutic process,” Akbar said.

Taylor listens to the problems of her nursing students while practicing in hospitals while navigating through the problems of the pandemic. She said one of her students told her, “I’m not used to dealing with death and dying, and I lost four patients today.”

She sees nurses and students studying to become nurses who suffer from compassion fatigue, stress and exhaustion due to helping the needy.

Black women who are nurses also have a stereotype of being “a strong black woman, super-resilient,” Taylor said.

“Yes, we are strong, but not so strong that we do not need help,” Taylor said.

Mental Health Program for Nurses

Last December, the National Black Nurses Association launched RE: SET, a free mental health program for nurses. The goal of the program is to teach nurses how to relieve stress in a healthy way and connect it to mental health resources, said Millicent Gorham, executive director of the association.

The program includes a series of videos and podcasts that center on relieving stress and seeking professional help when you need it, all for free.

Members of NBNA get the added benefit of free counseling services. Nurses receive five free sessions per health issue they face.

If a nurse has to communicate with a mental health professional during a break to ‘simply blow off steam because they see too many things in the hospital’, they have access to an unlimited number of phone calls and text messages to do so. , Gorham said.

Trilby Barnes, a nurse in New Orleans, said she participated in the free counseling after trying to remain resilient during the pandemic.

Barnes said, “To keep you awake and listen to what someone would advise you to do for you.”

To process chronic illnesses and grief over what has been lost

She works as a telephonic triage nurse, listens to people’s health needs and provides guidance on what to do next for their care. Since the start of the pandemic, Barnes has said the number of calls she has received has skyrocketed.

People would call her in ‘pure panic mode’, worried about their possible Covid-19 symptoms. Barnes said it was difficult to give good advice, although people’s lives depended on it, when not much was known about the virus at the start of the pandemic.

Find time for self-care

When Thompson was caring for her first Covid-19 patient after her studies, she turned to a nurse and said, ‘I literally have no idea how I can care for this patient, because it’s never something we do in nursing school. have not learned. ‘

You never know what will happen to your patients, she said, and they can go down very quickly. Thompson said it makes her realize how important it is to be a compassionate and caring nurse.

“I could possibly be one of the last people to see these patients, and I think that was something that hit me hard,” Thompson said.

Thompson says she has researched mental health support in the past, but it can be ‘overwhelming’ to navigate the resources for the first time, which has contributed to her not taking the first step.

Nurses should not hesitate to seek help for mental health when they need it, Taylor said, because it means they practice what they preach as nurses.

“Give yourself permission to be just as compassionate with yourself as with others,” Cheryl Taylor said.

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