A Sense of Urgency in 2023: A New Iceberg Awaits Us

KEYWORDS healthcare systems;nursing eduction;nursing shortage;leadership From my vantage point as a senior academic leader and manager in a college of nursing in an academic health science center, I recently read Our Iceberg Is Melting (Kotter & Rathgeber, 2006) as part of preparing for an administrative retreat. Budgeting is centralized, and nursing staff are considered to be a cost center. Because of the shortage of nurses who are qualified and willing to work in current inpatient systems, much of the conversation has turned to short-term solutions, including traveling nurses and other contingent workers. Decades of research provide data that lead to two major, modifiable dynamics that have contributed to fragmentation and lack of institutional commitment by nurses: poor workplace conditions and inadequate and inflexible staffing models.

Responding to Pandemic-Associated Changes in Cancer Prevention and Screening.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues into spring 2022. Vaccination levels are relatively flat, and movement toward recommending a second booster is occurring. Many are now acknowledging that the pandemic is likely to continue for years to come. Waiting for the end of the pandemic to return to "normal" life and assume prepandemic activities is a less viable strategy as the virus continues to mutate and infect individuals across the world. A burgeoning literature is examining short- and long-term societal changes resulting from the pandemic.

We Thank You: Now Let's Work Together to Enact Change.

The omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to overwhelm healthcare systems. The anticipated temporary disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic is now in its third year. Across multiple settings, nurses have continued to provide direct care, lead in healthcare organizations and political arenas, conduct research, and teach the next generation of nurses amid a novel virus and politicization of the healthcare infrastructure that has led to enmity toward healthcare providers. This editorial focuses on the next steps for demonstrating gratitude for the nurses who have persisted, continuing to do their jobs and honoring their professional creed in conditions that have extracted personal, professional and, for some, moral costs.

A Bevy of Black Swan Events: Existential Threats to the Future of Nursing

KEYWORDS COVID-19;pandemic;nursing crisis;black swan event;nursing workforce;future of nursing;health care The summer reprieve from COVID-19 was shorter than anticipated, and the upswing in cases and symptomatic illness has stretched the boundaries of our healthcare system once again. [...]from the vantage point of fall 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was one of several seminal events during the past 18 months: the killings of George Floyd and other Black individuals, the turmoil of a disputed presidential election, and, now, the polarization of the COVID-19 virus, with hostility toward nurses and other healthcare providers from individuals and groups who do not accept the validity of the pandemic. In recreating the nursing workforce for today's needs and the potentialities of the future, we must also consider the importance of leadership development channels that support the career pathways of future leaders in oncology nursing and for the nursing workforce, both in the United States and globally.

A Bevy of Black Swan Events: Existential Threats to the Future of Nursing: What brought us to this point in our disciplinary development is not going to get us to the next step. We are fundamentally challenged to redesign our profession for the future

The article reports that disciplinary development is fundamentally challenged to redesign the profession for the future. Topics include risk can cascade and spread across global systems, with implications for multiple aspects of societal stability;and the polarization of the COVID-19 virus, with hostility toward nurses and other healthcare providers from individuals and groups.

Addressing Health Disparities From a Syndemic Perspective.

As we enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is much hope about the eventual containment of the virus, leading to some form of a new normalcy. Multiple COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be effective, and the vaccination of individuals in the United States has reached several million per day, with an ever-growing percentage of the population having been vaccinated. However, there are stark reminders of the continued disparities that have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with different levels of vaccine accessibility across states and communities. In addition, multiple countries have not begun any vaccination implementation. Case and death rates continue to be unevenly distributed, with higher death rates in minority populations, particularly African American and Latinx individuals. This pandemic has raised to a higher level of awareness the ongoing and multiple forms of disparity associated with health and illness. For oncology nurses and scientists, how do we look to the issues so starkly presented by the pandemic and raise our awareness that the issues are not specific to COVID-19?

Toward Health Equity for All: A Complex Yet Congruent Future of Nursing.

With the COVID-19 pandemic quieting, at least in the United States, we are perhaps entering a time where future orientation and goal direction can begin to reenter our work and personal lives. However, there are impressions that we carry forward from 2020, individually and collectively, including perspectives of political unrest; the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others by law enforcement agents; and the deaths of millions of individuals across the world from a novel coronavirus.

A Time to Reflect and a Time to Move Forward

[...]notable racial and health disparities exist within our healthcare workforce and continue to be measurable and amplified within the context of a pandemic. [...]the false news narratives and erosion of public trust require new strategies, including unified and assertive communication, such as social media that uses the strength of over 2 million nurses to promote health across healthcare settings. [...]we must note and adjust to the disruption of our education systems.

Pandemic Uncertainty.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect most aspects of daily life, and looking for ways to cope and adapt in this altered state is a priority. Days of unsettling changes have turned into weeks, months, and, most likely, at least a year or more until an effective vaccine is distributed worldwide. COVID-19 has disrupted societies across the world, with a global scope that is unprecedented, ongoing, and without a demarcated end. Combined with the political turmoil related to the presidential election in the United States, environmental turmoil including widespread fires, and ongoing structural barriers (most notably systemic racism), 2020 has been, for most, a year that will live on in our minds long after the pandemic ends. .

Pandemic Paradox.

The COVID-19 crisis continues. Worldwide, there have been roughly 6.3 million cases and 380,000 deaths. In the United States, at the time of this writing, there were 106,200 deaths. As life has changed on many fronts, some predictable effects of the pandemic have occurred, including socioeconomic hardships, social isolation, and political unease. Although the intensity of the need for effective treatments and a vaccine is ongoing, other issues have arisen that were not widely anticipated in the early days of the pandemic. Several of these consequences have brought a focus on issues that are at the heart of oncology nursing.

Cancer Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues, now disproportionately affecting the richest and best-resourced country in the world. Although the death rates per affected individual have decreased from the initial wave in New York City, the United States is in the unfathomable situation of having more than 50,000 new cases per day, and the case numbers are increasing. The pandemic is now expected to remain a vexing health problem for months and perhaps years to come, and the implications for health promotion and disease prevention have taken on new importance given the need for ongoing attention to acute and long-term issues. However, the health-promoting behaviors of many Americans have changed during the pandemic, setting up risk for additional collateral losses, such as from an increase in cancer diagnoses.

COVID-19, Cancer, and Financial Toxicity.

When I first started this editorial in early March, I was writing from my usual coffee shop location, and the media was starting to focus on COVID-19. The incidence of the virus was increasing across the world, and the word "pandemic"-although debated passionately at the time-was beginning to gain traction. All signs pointed to a disruption; however, the scale of that change has exceeded what most of us could have imagined in early March. Now, millions of Americans and people around the world are in self-isolation, quarantine, or lockdown. There have been roughly 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 83,000 deaths worldwide at the time of this writing (Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, 2020). Like most, with the exception of essential personnel, I am at home wondering what is going to happen next and trying to find any positive outcome to this crisis.