The National Black Nurses Association knows that caring for COVID-19 patients, while also caring for children and family members, has been both mentally and physically straining for its members. Wanting to do something to help, NBNA began offering free mental health resources to its members on December 15.

“We know how difficult this year has been for nurses everywhere, especially Black nurses who are faced with both the pandemic and the current racial uprising,” NBNA President Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE, said in a press release. “It is crucial that we protect our nurses’ physical and mental wellbeing during such an unprecedented time in our country.”

NBNA is launching RE:SET to help provide that mental health support. A recent survey from Mental Health America found that healthcare workers, including nurses, were increasingly stressed (93 percent) and anxious (86 percent); worried about exposing a child (76 percent) or spouse or older relative (47 percent) to COVID-19; and emotionally exhausted (82 percent).

RE:SET includes three types of mental health support:

• A 24-hour support line members can call if they need to connect confidentially with mental health clinicians.
• Up to five free video sessions with an experienced, licensed clinician.
• Access to Text Coach, a service that “will help nurses and their families boost emotional fitness and wellbeing by exchanging text messages, voice notes, tip sheets, videos, and resource links.”

“With RE:SET we are able to provide them with the tools necessary to recover from the daily stresses of exhausting working conditions and challenges,” Dawson said. “It is essentially PPE for their mental and emotional health, which will help to impact their physical health.”

In June, NBNA received a million dollar grant from the Pfizer Foundation to provide mental health services and support to front line nurses.

“The mental well-being of our nurses is in serious jeopardy,” Dawson said in a press release at the time. “As nurses are treating COVID-19 and risking their lives, they are still humans fighting through depression, mental illnesses, and anxiety. I applaud The Pfizer Foundation for giving NBNA the ability to touch them with the help they need.”

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