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In our recently published editorial in the American Journal of Critical Care, Dr. Aluko Hope and I highlight systemic racism and the global pandemic as challenges to health care providers’ personal, professional, and societal responses and responsibilities. We also assert that these challenges serve to affirm underlying values that drive practice, and can provide direction for the future. The editorial’s take-home messages are briefly summarized here, and free access to the full editorial is available online at https://aacnjournals.org/ajcconline/article/doi/10.4037/ajcc2020139/31080/Meeting-Today-s-Challenges-All-In.

Nurses have firsthand experience with the negative effects of health disparities on health, illness, and recovery in our patients. These effects have been underscored in the current pandemic, with recent data pointing to poorer outcomes for people of color in COVID-19. Social determinants of health disproportionately affect black and brown people, and pervade every environment, from local neighborhoods to nations.
 
We must advocate for our individual patients and their families, ensuring that we treat each person with dignity and respect. We must also accept a responsibility to work to make society more just for all. Commitment to respect for persons and to social justice underpins all of the health professions and is explicit in the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses, which forms the ethical bedrock of the nursing profession. Three of the Code’s 9 provisions (Provisions 1, 8, and 9) directly address diversity and inclusion. Our patients and families need and deserve a healthcare system that provides high-quality care for all patients, that addresses social determinants of health and health inequities head on, and that seeks to eliminate health disparities.
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has loomed large over health care throughout 2020, and will continue to influence nursing practice for the foreseeable future. Knowledge generated from prior research can inform our response to problems encountered in the current pandemic. The principles of excellence in nursing care remain foundational for care during and after the pandemic. Clinical experience and emerging research each make important contributions to meeting this challenge.
 
Family-centered care, palliative care, healthy work environments, and measures to mitigate clinicians’ moral distress all have robust evidence supporting their contributions to better patient outcomes. Pressing issues related to infection control, high patient acuity, and surges in ICU volume are viewed as imposing barriers as we strive to maintain the highest quality care and evidence-based practices. The commitment of clinicians to incorporating innovative approaches to meeting patient and family needs in these extraordinary circumstances is truly inspiring.
 
Systemic racism and the COVID-19 global pandemic pose exceptional challenges to society, but also provide opportunities for changes that have potential to improve human well-being now and in the future. Foundational values of respect for every person’s worth and of social justice, coupled with a commitment to improving patient outcomes and to maintaining safe and healthy work environments, can enable us to emerge from the current crises stronger.