Conference Corner: Conference Summary - Virginia Nurses Association 2021 Fall

Conference Summary - Virginia Nurses Association 2021 Fall Conference - Virtual Chris Monk, MSN, RN, NEA-BC - Carilion Nursing Practice Administrator

As a result of a partnership between the Nursing Center of Excellence and HR Education and Organizational development, every nurse at Carilion was afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the on demand VNA fall conference, “Fostering Recovery by Creating Moral Community in the Wake of a Pandemic” from September thru December. I took advantage of the conference and would like to share my thoughts. The conference was brimming with information on how the pandemic has affected nursing, ways to take care of self while taking care of others, the importance of self-reflection, and the need to foster recovery through moral communities.

All healthcare workers have been affected in this pandemic. It is important to take time to unpack our thoughts, feelings and more importantly move on towards the future. The future is precisely where I choose to focus. To look toward fostering recovery via moral community, we must first define moral community. According to William Spohn (n.d.) the John Nobili Chair of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University, moral community refers to the network of those to whom we recognize an ethical connection through the demands of justice, the bonds of compassion, or a sense of obligation. A moral community in healthcare is necessary for ethical practice of nursing. Nurses are bound to each other through common ethical commitments, whose purpose extends beyond, but must include self-care (Wocial, 2018). Self-care with a strong sense of moral community were two key takeaways for me that I found encouraging.

As we move forward and shift our focus to recovery, we will need a strong moral community that encourages conversations, encourages different perspectives, and challenges the status quo. Nursing is at the forefront of patient care. While the rest of the world continues to focus on the narrative of awfulizing how bad things are for healthcare workers, nursing is there at the bedside forging ahead and forming a new narrative. That new narrative is nurses showing up for work every day who find joy. People continuing to enroll in nursing school to be a part of the workforce for humanity in the fight against COVID. Tenured nurses continuing to train and orient new nurses despite increasing workloads, so that the profession continues to grow and serve. Nurse leaders who are focusing their efforts on ensuring there is a network that has a strong ethical connection, where the bonds of compassion and a sense of obligation thrive.

Personally, I am thankful to be in a moral community of healthcare workers who have stumbled together, helped each other work to be the best we can be for our patients and no matter the obstacles, continued pushing forward in what sometimes felt like impossible situations. Working collaboratively towards justice, through the bonds of compassion with a sense of obligation, is exactly where I choose to focus the narrative moving forward. Professional nursing is well-positioned to move us there. We are grounded in standards of practice, professional performance elements and a code of ethics that depict a strong moral community, honors our Carilion mission, values, and our professional practice model REACH.

Fostering a strong moral community where we advocate for all patients; vaccinated, unvaccinated, practicing healthy behaviors or with too many chronic conditions to count, is our future work. I am so proud to be a part of Carilion’s nursing team and the broader moral community where this work takes place. I am humbled by the commitment, compassion, courage, and curiosity I see every day. Moving forward, let us not lose sight of the moral community within which we reside and let us collaborate to foster an even stronger community where we can change the narrative from one of awfulizing, and hopelessness, to one of overcoming, innovating, making a difference against all odds and fostering recovery.

References

Spohn, William (n.d.) Who Counts?: Images Shape Our Moral Community https://www.scu.edu/mcae/ publications/iie/v7n2/spohn.html

Wocial, L.D., (January 31, 2018) "In Search of a Moral Community" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 23, No. 1, Manuscript 2.