3 Tips for Nurses When Asked About Public Health Issues

• It can be hard feeling like the PR team for all of healthcare, with family, friends, and acquaintances coming to you every time public health issues pop up. 
• The reality is that, even with a nursing background and a solid grasp of microbiology, most nurses are not in a position to speak authoritatively on specific health threats. 
• So consider this advice: Trust the experts, use common sense, and take a breath. 

“Hey…you’re a nurse, right?”  

It never fails. When healthcare is in the news, my husband’s distant acquaintances always seem to suddenly remember my profession. And with another recent public health announcement regarding a vegetable recall, I am again faced with the question: how do I respond to these people?  

When I got into nursing, I had a fair idea of what my workdays would look like, but I didn’t understand the scope of how my off time would also be spent in support of the profession. Nursing is often thought of as an identity in addition to a job title, and this is never clearer than when the people around you are scared. 

I can look back and see the range of fears that people have approached me with. COVID rates are down overall, but continue to peak-and-valley. People ask me about how the opioid epidemic might affect their teens, or about the latest on Mpox.  

There have been recalls over E. coli 0157 in minced onions at McDonald’s, and yet again there has been an outbreak of Listeria in the ice cream supply. Why is everything yummy contaminated? It doesn’t seem fair! 

The reality is that, even with a nursing background and a solid grasp of microbiology, most of us nurses are just not in a position to speak authoritatively on specific health threats, especially not before a cup of coffee and a chance to sit down and read the day’s headlines.  

3 Ways to Address Public Health Issues

For that reason, it comforts me to have a go-to approach of three simple steps when it comes to quelling people’s fears when they are faced with public health uncertainty and anxiety. 

Trust the experts.

In scary times, it is a comfort to me to know that we have organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on our side. Their whole gig is monitoring and responding to health threats using evidence-based approaches. If their website says to do a thing? I’m going to do the thing. And I’ll probably post on my social media and tell other people to do the thing, too. Mr. Rogers taught us to “look for the helpers.” Others are looking to us, and we can look to our own helpers, too. 

Use common sense.

If you are afraid of getting sick, there are some tried-and-true approaches that have been known to be effective for years. Wash your hands. Wash and/or thoroughly cook your food. Don’t do things that you absolutely know will increase your underlying health risks, like smoking, excess drinking, and eating junk food. When I was a kid, I always thought it was funny to lick things. Don’t lick things. It’s common sense. If your mom always washed her produce… because her mom always washed her produce… then chances are you should probably wash your produce, too.

Take a deep breath.

In most circumstances, and with most illnesses, negative outcomes are statistically unlikely… assuming you follow steps one and two. It is completely understandable that people get scared. Things that are unknown are scary, and not having the medical background to analyze the data that is being thrown at them by the media can be overwhelming for people. Never in recent memory has this been more true than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sometimes the best thing you can do is take a nice deep breath and look away from the screens. We’re all going to get through the next big thing… whatever it is. 

The Bottom Line

It can be a unique challenge to serve as the “PR team for all of healthcare,” especially when some of these subjects might be SO far outside of our specialties. It might even be tempting to rail against the questions, and complain that it isn’t our job to know everything. Don’t these people know how to Google? And for some of us, learning the difference between Listeria and Giardia was a LONG time ago, and hasn’t influenced our practice for years. It might even feel overwhelming, knowing that apparently every one of our Facebook friends sees us as their de facto provider. But take a deep breath. And just like them, we can get through this. 

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