We're on mute! Exclusion of nurses' voices in national decisions and responses to COVID ‐19: An international perspective

Nurses are the largest healthcare workforce and have had direct, intense and sustained contact with COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic playing an essential and frontline role in the COVID-19 response. Nurses have worked tirelessly and undertaken multiple roles during the pandemic including education, treatment, prevention, vaccination and research often in uncertain situations and to the detriment of their physical and mental health. They have also managed and cared for distressed patients and their families, and many have been redeployed to other roles often outside of their usual duties, all factors which have affected their well-being. They have publicly been lauded as ‘heroes’. Yet, their voices and perspectives are seldom heard or included in COVID-19 decision-making and in the development of interventions and responses at all levels from individual health services to national policymaking. Indeed, it has felt like these voices have been muted and excluded. Nurses’ unique knowledge, expertise, needs and lived experiences are vital to the COVID-19 response. Without their inclusion, COVID-19 decision-making and initiatives are unlikely to be successful and patient outcomes poorer.