Five Years Post COVID‐19

As we head into 2026, it seems hard to believe that it is just five years since we entered 2020—the year we all eagerly anticipated as the World Health Organization's Year of the Nurse and the Midwife (World Health Organization 2020). We had been so confident that our special year would create an occasion in which we could elevate the importance of these professions to governments and policy-makers, and resolve some of the longstanding challenges nurses face globally in trying to enact the discipline's mission of health for all. Instead, we found ourselves embroiled in the most devastating global pandemic that had been seen for generations. Our health care systems were overwhelmed by the sudden demand, and the nursing profession stepped up to fill every possible gap in ensuring care that was as safe and compassionate as possible under previously unimaginable conditions. For a time, the public media were full of “angels and heroes” rhetoric (Stokes-Parish et al. 2020), and people gathered outside their homes to bang pots and cheer for the selflessness and courage of nurses. And then, inevitably, the message about the terrible strain on nursing and the need for strong public policy to support and retain the nursing workforce started to fade away (Mohammed et al. 2021). As we all adapted to pandemic conditions and their aftermath, nursing was no longer front-page news. The pandemic did bring us all kinds of benefits. We rapidly learned how to use virtual technologies to communicate with one another and provide care. We worked out modifications to our research methodologies so that we could study and learn from all that was happening. Health care delivery systems learned how to adapt facilities to meet the pressing immediate needs. Scientists learned how to cooperate in order to bring novel vaccines into development, and governments learned how to get them into public health distribution with stunning speed. However, the fear and confusion associated with the pandemic also surfaced a great many disturbing truths about our society—truths with which we will be wrestling for decades to come. One that became immediately apparent was racism, something which had always lurked below the surface of awareness for many of those not personally affected, but was now brought into full public display as people sought out something to blame (Sabatello et al. 2021). Even those well-versed in a theoretical understanding of the structural racism baked into the foundations of each of our nations were shocked at the depth of hostility toward certain population groups that was now becoming so unconcealed and even normalized (Elias and Ben 2023). A second truth was the profound and widespread distrust in science, made obvious by mask and vaccine resistance, amidst a flurry of conspiracy theories—often fueled by persons in positions of influence in support of decidedly political agendas (Hotez 2023; Thomas 2021). While nursing has always recognized some level of vaccine hesitancy within society, the enormity of this pushback, and the patterns across society that demonstrated sectors most vulnerable to the fear-mongering, were profoundly disturbing (Prasad 2021). They forced us to recognize the destructive potential of social media in these modern times and the reality that the scientific principles upon which many of our practices are based are not fully accepted by a significant proportion of the wider public. A third disturbing truth was the sobering reality that, no matter how vividly the pandemic had demonstrated society's dependence upon a strong and resilient system of high-quality nursing (e.g., Tomblin Murphy et al. 2022), governments and policy-makers were somehow unable to grasp the enormity of the issue or envision how to build strong policy toward buffering against the next global health threat. All too quickly, nursing once again became the “problem child,” asking for recognition and attention but all too conveniently ignored by those for whom the complexities of building and sustaining an effective nursing workforce seemed just too difficult. Although the last century's global public health crises, including World War 1 (1914–1918) and the Spanish Flu epidemic (1918–1920), had showcased the impressive contributions of nursing during times of calamity and set the stage for nurse leaders to capitalize in forcing lasting investments in nursing and nursing education in order to ensure the health of populations (Cipriano 2018; Johns 1921), we saw no comparable influx in investment in nursing infrastructure following COVID-19. It is particularly concerning that this lack of progress has been documented across many national contexts. In its recent report on the global sustainability of the nursing workforce, the International Council of Nursing (ICN) noted that nearly two-thirds of National Nursing Association Presidents reported demands on the nursing workforce that had moderately or greatly increased since 2021, and approximately half had observed a moderate or great increase in nurses leaving the sector (Sharplin et al. 2025). Thus, it is arguable that we are witnessing setbacks instead of investments in nursing as governments turn to other priorities. Depressingly, one investment priority that seems all too tempting for so many governments today is in military resources, as our world becomes increasingly chaotic and politically unstable. Finally, adding insult to injury, we see lurking on the horizon new threats to the credibility of nursing as a profession. While the recent attempts in the United States to reclassify nursing as a non-professional degree (American Academy of Nursing 2025; American Nurses Association 2025) may seem an aberration arising from unhinged policy leadership, one can guarantee that other nations will be paying attention to anything that might help find fiscal efficiencies in the current economic climate, including efforts to produce new nurses more quickly and cheaply. Nursing unequivocally understands the threat to patient outcomes and the health of populations if the professionalism of nursing is not respected and supported. We must therefore ensure that the counterargument is expressed loudly and convincingly on the basis of solid and unequivocal evidence. As we enter this new year, we can all hope for a time ahead with more calm and stability, a time in which such nursing priorities as universal high-quality health care for all and a civil, just, and equitable social fabric might be realized. But considering all we have lived through over the past five years, I think it is a safer bet to expect that we have our work cut out for us. Let's ensure that we do all we can to sustain pride and confidence in our cherished profession, that we continue to strengthen the evidentiary basis for nursing as an effective societal investment, and that we remain vigilant in standing together to meet the challenges to come.