Nermin Ibranovic works as a community nurse in Primary Health Care Center in Zenica. He likes helping people and decided on his profession already in primary school. He advises the population as well as his colleagues to continue adhering to preventive epidemiological measures related to COVID-19 pandemic given the deteriorating situation. He believes that the society as a whole should learn a lesson from the current pandemic and be more prepared to face similar crisis situations in the future.

Nermin admits that working during the COVID-19 pandemic is stressful: “After a whole day of work with patients infected with the virus, we go home to our families. Just the idea that we could infect our own children, wife, mother or a father is really stressful.”

He has noticed that people in general either respect the measures in full or do not adhere to them at all, potentially causing enormous harm to others. "Isolation and curfew had temporarily brought order. But the moment the measures were lifted, people returned to the usual habits of living and so we already have an increase in the number of infected people," Nermin explains.

Therefore, he recommends to the population as well as to his colleagues, to continue taking the entire situation seriously, being careful and adhering to preventive epidemiological measures. Wearing masks properly is of a high importance.

"The society should learn a lesson and take all this as a general rehearsal for the future," Nermin says. In order to be better prepared for possible similar crisis situations in the future, clear written procedures, more education for medical staff and stricter control of compliance with the endorsed measures are needed in the health care system. The reserves of rapid response medical equipment, standby teams and dispensaries such as the current COVID-19 dispensaries are some of the prerequisites. Educating the entire population, including even children in schools and kindergartens, about disinfection and the use of masks is also one of the possible measures. "If a similar crisis reappears in the future , everything needs to be done to prevent health workers from getting sick. "If that happens, there will be no one to help the patients," Nermin pointed out.