Francisco Díaz, MSN, GNP-BC, CDCES

New York City was declared as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic the weekend I left my husband upstate to avoid exposing him to COVID-19. On my first day back to work, I was informed that a second colleague had called out sick. This announcement meant that I would be covering for two sick colleagues with respiratory symptoms. Eventually, an attending physician was added to the list of call outs. This unprecedented event required me to orient to acute respiratory care to be repaired for the sudden surge of patients in need of ventilator care.

Telemedicine was instituted to promote social distancing, decrease exposure to vulnerable populations and protect personnel. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a paradigm shift in patient care. Thankfully, telemedicine is allowing me and other APRNs to see and treat our diabetic patients. The changes we are making now to care for our patients are going to be the new way of caring for our patients in the future.

Nursing is responding to COVID-19 by being innovative, learning additional skills, and using our expertise to serve our patients. Many states are allowing APRNS to practice to their full scope of practice.  It is my hope that the APRNs who were given full scope of practice due to COVID-19 will continue this practice after the pandemic.

I am looking forward to implementing my DNP Scholarly Project Geriatric-Sensitive Inpatient Diabetes Management: The Impact of an Educational Intervention on Frailty on the Healthcare Teams’ Knowledge and Self-Confidence to further support our patients.