New Year, New Posibilities
With 2022 off to a fresh start, I’d like to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come since the beginning of 2021. We started out last year with tremendous expectation that with numerous emergency-authorized vaccines being rolled out, we’d finally be able to get ahold of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, we find ourselves moving through another year with concerns about COVID and wondering when the pandemic will come to an end.
Here at the National Service Office for Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First, our commitment to the communities we serve has not wavered, and we’ve continued to provide families with high-quality healthcare rooted in science. Based on scientific evidence and data, the NSO believes that immunization is the path forward to mitigate the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NSO also has issued a directive to its national networks that all NFP nurses must be vaccinated to conduct in-person visits with families and is recommending the same for all Child First Clinical Teams.
We are grateful for the opportunity to return to in-person care while also continuing to support families via telehealth — with the ultimate hope being a full return to in-person visits in the year to come.
As a public health organization, we care deeply about the communities and families we serve, which is why it is our hope that everyone who is able to get vaccinated does — to protect themselves, their loved ones, and the communities in which they live.
Every one of us has experienced COVID’s impact first-hand. Whether you’ve lost a job, suffered the illness, or lost a loved one — COVID deaths in the U.S. have surpassed a staggering 900,000 — we’ve all been undeniably altered.
I know we are all looking forward to a time when COVID concerns are a thing of the past. With close to sixty-five percent of the U.S. population fully vaccinated, that hope is on the horizon. Even in the face of continued uncertainty, we can’t deny that we have come a long way in the last year, and 2022 holds even more promise for ending the pandemic and realizing what life after COVID will look like — more gatherings, more connection, and more care for the people around us.
As we start a new year, I will remember the progress that’s been made in 2021, and I am eager to meet 2022 with hope and optimism for all that is to come. From all of us here at the National Service Office for Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First, thank you for being a part of our community. We look forward to all that we will accomplish this year.
Learn more about Nurse-Family Partnership’s mission, vision, and values.