Article Contest: How is the Covid 19 Affecting Your Life?

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

This article contest will be different than the others we've had in the past. Instead of cash, we are going to give away gift cards to restaurants to the top 3 winners so you can have a break from cooking by picking up food instead. Some of these articles may be featured in our upcoming magazine. Get your article in today for a chance to be featured in the magazine.

The top 3 winners will split the $300 prize.

We want to encourage you to share your story of what is going on in your life now...how you are coping with the constantly changing protocols that COVID-19 is creating. We know you are having to deal with many shortages and are risking your own safety to care for patients.

We thank you!!

The topics for your article can be about anything as long as it is about COVID-19... how this is altering your life - emotionally, educational, physically, etc. Here are a few suggestions for topics:

• Fear
• Anxiety
• Paranoia
• Financial worries
• Graduation delayed
• Clinicals canceled
• NCLEX delayed
• Nursing programs closed
• Have you tested positive for and become ill with the COVID-19?
• Are you in a high-risk group?
• School closings/children at home
• Lack of childcare
• Social isolation

Who Can Enter

This contest is open to all. You don't have to be an experienced writer. This is open to nurses and students. We all have our own Coronavirus stories to tell... Please share yours with us.

Rules of Submission

We are so glad you wish to submit an article. Here are the rules of submission:

• Article tone and content must comply with our rules and Terms of Service. No solicitation.
• Articles must have a minimum of 600 words.
• No plagiarism - Your article must be written in your own words and cannot be posted on other websites, blogs, etc. prior to posting on allnurses.
• Articles will be reviewed and approved by staff for consideration before displaying publicly.
• Articles must be unique and should not be listed on other websites, blogs, article sites, etc. prior to posting on allnurses. Once your articles have been published on allnurses.com, you are welcome and encouraged to share them on your other sites and social channels.
• You may submit multiple articles.
• You grant permission to allnurses.com rights to publish in magazines, books, etc. You will be notified and credited if published.
• Keep personal formatting choices such as font choice and size to a minimum - use only for headings.
• Check grammar, punctuation, and spelling before clicking SUBMIT.

How to Submit Your Article

To submit your Covid Article, go to the COVID-19 Forum and click the green tab on the right: ADD NEW TOPIC

When that loads, click, "Article?". Then, click the dropdown menu that reads: "Yes I'm Submitting An Article".

Follow the instructions to complete all required fields (TITLE, ARTICLE SUMMARY, and CONTENT), scroll and click SUBMIT TOPIC.

Once you have submitted the Article, it will be reviewed and approved by Administration. If Administrators have questions, they will contact you for additional information.

Only Articles containing 600 words or more will qualify for the contest.

**CONTEST ENDS: Monday, April 27, 2020, at m/n EST!**

If you have questions about Article submissions, please contact the Admin Help Desk

Good luck to everyone! We are looking forward to reading your articles.

Panera's
Chilis
Home Depot
Olive Garden
LongHorn
Cheddars
Yard House
Bahama Breeze
...and more

EDITED TO ADD

WINNERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED

Scroll to Page 4 to see the list of winners.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

Luckily, not much has changed for me yet, other than minor inconveniences. But, I also understand that may change at any given time. I will add that I'm a home body-almost hermit, hubby and I farm and are fairly self sufficient

[Tee Bee]

not sure how to post on this site it's been a long time. I retired from being an LVN 3 years ago. I work in mental Health, detox, and subspecialty surgery Clinic for the VA. I'm 64. And I want to work helping potential patients get drive thru covid-19 testing or telehealth. I live in Santa Rosa, California and want a part-time job helping. Thank you, Theresa

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

12 hours ago, Alexandra4rmtexas said:

My babygirl is 7months old, part of me feels I should quit my job to minimize risking my baby from covid-19. I just work medsurg, my hospital is a very small hospital with only two vents available, and 24bed medsurg. No ICU here, small ER with 2RNs, 1LPN, 1Doc.
Other part of me feels I need to be available for the community that needs me.
This is a battle inside me made up of fear for the unknown. Would never put my baby on the line, our county does not have any confirmed Covid-19 cases so far. Since my baby was born I’ve been working only Saturdays and Sundays, I’m sure I’m not the only nurse worried about their baby. Anyone else worried about your baby??

It's natural to be worried about your (presumably healthy) baby, but honestly I'd be worried more if I lived with an elderly parent. I'm not concerned at all about my nieces and nephews getting over Covid. I'm highly concerned for my parents.

[eakirlin]

ohhhh my heart goes out to you. Does your doctor at least have a new protocol with how to deal with patient's with coughs, or coughs with fevers.... my personal physician won't see any of those people and is sending them to ED.

Don't touch anything with bare fingers... for starts. Wipe down surfaces/pens/clipsboards/phones/ desktops with each use with chlorhexidine. If chlorhexidine not available, check and see (CDC) if chlorox wipes and alcohol 70% are sufficient. Do you have an N95 mask, or can you get access? Might consider placing a thin line of bactroban in nares, like they do for immunocompromised patients, but ask your own doctor for that, because I do not have prescriptive authority. Those surgical masks are better than nothing. ARE ANY OF HIS PATIENTS ASKING SERIOUS QUESTIONS? Once again, my PCP office is all but closed, and there is one person stationed lateral to the building, social distance line, and you go into office only if no fever no cough.

What does your mayor or your metropolitan health district say to do? I will think about this some more and get back with you, but this gives you a start.

(Annie... RN 40 years, mostly ICU... currently an endangered species)

[TreeJ, ADN, RN]

I thought about your topics in relation to this virus. Honestly, they all seemed seeing a glass half empty type headings. For myself, reading history many Nurses and Nurses before being called Nurses pioneered such times as this. Do I worry about illness? Oh yes I do, in fact the last near 21 years I’ve been in this. Each day was probably a gamble. To the Aids patient, MRSA, VRE, Hepatitis, H1N1 exposures, but education and rationality saw me through. In the end, no virus made me ill, but instead I fight a Pancreatic Tumor, Parkinsons which for me is no guarantee that life will be at its best.

So, being this is a new normal for awhile I hope to hear 30 years from this period, Nurses took the helm. That caring and loving resurged in this field and Nurses didn't become Nurses for the money & job security. That they realized they were called to it. Human servers is what we are.

Nursing school was not easy, in fact this field is not. But, its the job or is it not. Nursing for me was always a Love and never worked a day of it. Salutatorians, above all during this period is what I’ll call you forever!

[eakirlin]

Appreciate your response.

Since I do not know which specific items you are responding to, would offer the following:

Objection to unsafe standards should not qualify as a glass half empty.

I believe Florence did plenty of this in Crimea, and Queen Victoria wanted to name her as the head of her War Department. Perspective is everything.

You may not have been responding to the unsafe standards argument, but that appears to be at the heart of most responses. It is perhaps the choice of whether to work/not to work in these conditions. That is a personal choice, and while I might applaud the the sheer brio of someone who is forging ahead, it would not be wise to avoid taking on the environment of care which affects all of us, including the patients. Hopefully, nurses will unite over this and other conditions which keep us from being the public helth resource we are.

[TreeJ, ADN, RN]

3 hours ago, eakirlin said:

Appreciate your response.

Since I do not know which specific items you are responding to, would offer the following:

Objection to unsafe standards should not qualify as a glass half empty.

I believe Florence did plenty of this in Crimea, and Queen Victoria wanted to name her as the head of her War Department. Perspective is everything.

You may not have been responding to the unsafe standards argument, but that appears to be at the heart of most responses. It is perhaps the choice of whether to work/not to work in these conditions. That is a personal choice, and while I might applaud the the sheer brio of someone who is forging ahead, it would not be wise to avoid taking on the environment of care which affects all of us, including the patients. Hopefully, nurses will unite over this and other conditions which keep us from being the public helth resource we are.

@eakirlin

Thank you for the response. I was hoping not to sound defiant of any efforts to combat the response. Especially in light of safety. The only topics given begin with anxiety, fear and paranoia, etc. At this moment, those feelings are validated, even for me. Only hoped to offer inspiring words in the topic of Hope. People speak to me with anxious eyes. I won't add to that. Rather, encouragement.

[Bertha17]

We desperately need help in my hospital. We use a face mask for a week, the PPE are running out fast. The pressure is high but we are hanging in there and praying fervently for God’s help.

[Chris9sophie]

Where are you located? I am an hour south of Boston we have run out of gowns and are wiping down what we have left.

[BarefootGary LPN, LPN]

This is a mess, We learned from 9/11 and I hope we learn from this one.First... we need to start allowing LPNs to work on the med/surg and medical floors like they used to, several RNs agree with me on this, we used to be allowed to hang IVs,give meds and check blood before a transfusion with the RNs this was right up to the middle 2000s where I work.There are things that LPNS,RNs as well as CNAs are not allowed to do anymore like it was in the past.We need to have a dedicated float team that is adequately staffed so staff are not forced to cover another 8 hrs (unless they want to).It is a crying shame that nurses are stapling their masks together and reusing them,and have resorted to using garbage bags for protection.We need to have reusable autoclavable medical equipment on standby in case we are ever hit by something of this magnitude ever again if our disposable stuff runs out.In the 90s as well as I think the early to mid 2000s we were still using the yellow cloth isolation gowns that were washable and clavable.If you watch the old M.A.S.H. episodes I think the surgical masks of the day probably into the early to mid 70,s were probably autoclavable? One last note on this...I read it was a proven fact from some publication and some may disagree with me on this one that you have a lower mortality rate when more nurses are trained on the BSN level and above I am good with this.All I can say is that there are plenty of Diploma and Associate degree RNs and LPN/LVNs,and CNAs that are a strong resource and should be considered a valuable resource I hope I did not bore anyone.Be safe,and stay healthy...

[Kabdel]

How does this virus affect my life?

I wake up now unsure if it will be my last cup of coffee . Will it be the last hug or kiss I give my child ? Will it be the last phone call I have between me and my mother?
I am awaiting to get a reply if I am accepted into Nursing school, should I quit and back down? I am a mother, wife, pre-nursing student ,what do I do? Now I live in fear of losing a Nation not just a family. My animal instincts are kicking in .Should I now protect myself from what is it come? Will there be more crime , more poverty and hunters coming after me? No its not the Walking Dead , but its is real . Not unexpected , it happened before right? BLACK DEATH, FLU, SARS, EBOLA, why were we not prepared? Are we in denial? How do I come out of these thoughts? Have Faith, Be Strong and I Know there is a cure for everything except old age because he said so.

TO ALL OF THE NURSES AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS out there putting there lives on the line to help others. You are our Heroes. Pray when you wake up and Pray before you sleep and have confidence you will succeed over this Hardship and there will come ease.Thank you so much for your service.

[MsJenn_The_RN]

I just submitted an article; I hope I submitted it correctly. I'm brand new on this site as a member...I browsed it some when I was in school and clueless. Whether or not anyone else even reads my submission, big thanks for putting on a contest. Just writing about what I'm dealing with these days, was pretty cathartic. It's a small consolation