As a community nurse, Branka Janjic is close to and familiar with her patients. Owing to that, she manages to calm their anxiety about the current pandemic. She believes that adequate personal protective equipment and timely awareness of health workers, as well as individual awareness, responsible behaviour and thoughtfulness, are crucial to successfully fight against this or any other similar crisis.

Great love for the job and willingness to help those in greatest need, determined Branka’s choice of profession. As a community nurses, she is mainly supporting elderly and seriously ill people. In addition to health services, Branka is also providing psychological support. Therefore, it is not uncommon that patients get attached to her over time. Close relationship and good communication helped her reduce or even dispel fears that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic had siezed her already frail and weak patients.  

Branka immediately knew that her main task was to self-educate by obtaining as much as possible relevant and reliable information on the virus and its complications. This was important for two reasons: firstly, to preserve my own health and consequently the health of my patients and secondly, to be able as a nurse to inform my patients correctly”, she explains.

Branka admits that it is “extremely difficult and mentally demanding to make home visits in circumstances where it is not certain or definite that a patient or a family member is not viral positive”. Hence, home visits during the pandemic require maximal preparation, a thorough assessment and full epidemiological anamnesis, as well as personal protective equipment. “When it comes to this crisis, timely and high-quality support in terms of adequate personal protective equipment is priority number one, but also a precondition for good planning and provision of health services in the field”, is the opinion of Branka.      

She believes that promptly informing primarily health workers, but also the general public is essential for successful fight against this or any other crisis. She also thinks that “no less important is responsible behaviour and thoughtfulness of each individual, reflected in the respect for the opinions, advice and recommendations of professionals and observation of prescribed personal protective measures”. 
  
“The pandemic has shown that nurses are a very important segment at the core of the health system. Responsible, devoted, dedicated and professional attitude toward the new circumstances is the only guarantee that the health system will not collapse and the pandemic will be successfully fought against”, Branka concludes.