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Pediatric Surgery Nurses Lead And Coordinate Covid-19 Recovery Efforts, Shelly Johnson, Alice E. Dupler

2021 Providence Nurse Research Conference

Background: In early 2020, the appearance of the novel COVID-19 virus became a global concern, infecting hundreds of thousands of people. To reduce the spread of the virus, the United States government instituted social distancing and required hospitals to take steps to create extra beds for patient with COVID. One method to increase hospital capacity was the cancellation of scheduled, elective surgeries. In one large pediatric hospital in the Pacific Northwest, there was no formal process in place for cancelling elective procedures or for prioritizing when or how to reschedule the case. Because nurses were being called on to provide …