National Nurses Month Spotlight

For National Nurses Month, we are proud to spotlight one of our Project Firstline IPC Champions, Dr. Jennifer Aying from our community partners PNAA and PNAAF. The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) interviewed Dr. Aying to learn about her career in nursing, and we are excited to share her answers with you.

Access Dr. Jennifer Aying’s Infection Prevention Control Champion page here.

1. Please share a brief bio.

 My name is Jennifer Nequia Aying. I had been a nurse for more than 40 years, worked as a Nurse Practitioner for 23 years at the VA Boston Healthcare System. I graduated my master’s degree at Northeastern University, Massachusetts and doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Massachusetts Boston. I was the chair of COVID-19 Task Force of the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA) in 2020-2022. I am currently the co-chair of PNAA Practice Committee and serves as one of APIAHF/PNAA/PNAAF Project Firstline Infection Prevention and Control Champions.

2. What is a significant story from your work as a nurse?

There are many significant stories I had working as a nurse. One of the significant stories as a nurse I never forget, was in clinical setting when I worked as an Emergency Room Nurse in Saudi Arabia. I remembered that night when a frantic mother showed up in ED screaming; this woman threw a lifeless infant on my lap on. I quickly stood up, went to the ED unit holding the baby at the same time started the mouth-to-mouth breathing on this infant. After I laid down the infant in the bed, checked the ABC signs, continued the resuscitation with my left hand calling for a code.

The infant survived from sudden infant syndrome and what made it significant was making a difference in people’s lives. Nurses save life and we promote life. At any given time and place, I know that I had a duty to do and I had to be equipped when situations like this happened in my practice.

3. Why did you decide to pursue a career in nursing?

I would like to answer this question with who inspired me to pursue a career in nursing. My immediate answer would be my mother and my eldest sister were the biggest inspiration to pursue my career in nursing. I knew as early when I was in grade school that I wanted to be a nurse. From that time at my early age, I knew that nursing is about caring of others. My mother taught me the value of caring and how it played being a nurse. Listening to my aunt, my eldest sister had a brain bleed sustained from a fall that made her incapacitated at her young age. She was bedridden and completely dependent of her care. For twenty years, I was helping my mother in providing care to my sister until she passed. That time, I did not know that I was doing a nurse should do such as feeding her, performed physical hygiene, and attended to her daily living. I guess, I was already exposed to the roles and responsibilities as a nurse that made it easy for me when I decided to enter the nursing profession. The firsthand foundations with my sister in taking care of her made my transition, not too difficult to pursue my career in nursing.

When I became a nurse, I was not afraid to face the challenges in my career.  I loved taking care of my patients as if they are my sister. I took everything a challenge not a difficulty or a burden. This is also the reason why I am good with hands-on, and I always like the clinical part of my nursing career, which is direct patient contact and interaction.

 4. What would you say are the biggest challenges nurses face?

 The biggest challenges that nurses’ face nowadays are multifaceted. An example is the current shortage of nurses that cause understaffing and the lack of training of the new nurses on the job. When COVID-19 hit the health care, the new nurses’ orientation had to cut short to answer the demands of patient care. Most of them do not have the skills and knowledge and yet, they act and maintained the outstanding tasks of their career, of excellent care to save lives and promote their patients’ well-being.

In the context of the fourth industrial revolution another challenge is the rapid change and technological advancement, including the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Learning the newest technology in health care that nurses must adapt and learn is a challenge in an already heavy workload and lack of human resources for training and support. Nurses have less knowledge and experience with computer literacy let alone in a short-staffed setting.

Another challenge is the limitations of the advance practice nurses in their practice. There is no specific standards in every state as to NPs scope of practice. Currently, only 27 states and in Washington D.C. allow NPs to practice independently. The rest of the states NPs may perform many of their job functions with a high level of independence, but they must work in collaboration with (restricted) or under the supervision of a physician (reduced).

 5. What is a message you would like to share with your fellow nurses for National Nurses Month?

As the former chair of the PNA America Covid-19 Task Force, I witnessed how the pandemic shaped the lives of the people. Some of the nurses left the profession and others retired because of the stress and the inability to take care of our own selves. As we continue to take care of others, we have to take care of ourselves, too. Let us not forget that we have only one life, and in order to take care of others we must remain healthy for our patients and our own families. Practice self-care, it is healthy and prevent burn out.

Another message I would like to share with my fellow nurses, is we embrace, engage, and

mentor our young nurses not eat them.  As an experienced nurse, one of the best attributes you possess is teach the inexperience, mold and hone them to become competent nurses. Unfortunately, nowadays, it is either the eating of the young or eating of the old exist. Let us change that history.

 Be a proponent of education, engage and encourage other nurses to aim for higher education. The National Academy of Medicine Future of Nursing 2020-2030, with the theme of “Charting the Path to Achieve Healthy Equity”, nurses must introduce and amplify the reports of our key role in the healthcare system. With education, nurses are in a position to address health inequities, improve health and well-being for all, and reduce health disparities, promote equity while keeping healthcare affordable while maintaining patient and family-focused care.

With education, nurses must be fully engaging and assume leadership role and must be well-prepared, remove the obstacle like limiting nurses’ scope of practice to function their fullest capacity.

 At the end of the day, WE are nurses, we are driven by our oath to take care of each other and our patients equally and with dignity. HAPPY NURSES’ MONTH MY DEAR COLLEAGUES!