CORONAVIRUS

Nurse2Nurse, help line for nurses under stress from COVID pandemic, launches in NJ

Lindy Washburn
NorthJersey.com

No one understands the stress a nurse faces on the job better than another nurse. And nothing has caused more stress for nurses than the COVID pandemic, as front-line caregivers guard against exposure to the coronavirus, witness patient deaths and worry about family members and friends becoming infected.   

In recognition of the unique role fellow nurses can play in supporting their peers, a confidential mental health help line — staffed by current and retired nurses — was launched Monday for nurses and their family members in New Jersey.  

Called Nurse2Nurse, the help line — at 844-687-7301 — is based at Rutgers Behavioral Health Services, which has decades of experience with a variety of other peer-to-peer support lines for police officers, veterans, caregivers, moms and others.  

The call center is available to nurses and their family members from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday.  

“It’s in our hearts to help the healers,” said Barbara Brilliantine, one of the nurses staffing the help line, speaking of herself and her colleagues. “We’ve walked in their shoes.”  

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The counselors include active and retired nurses who receive training in reciprocal peer support and wellness principles and are mental health and peer support specialists. Brilliantine also has 25 years of experience as a nurse in a variety of settings. 

Besides offering resources to those who call, the call-center nurses engage in “active listening,” she said, “which is very important for someone who has been the caretaker of others — for them to actually be seen and heard.”  

ICU nurses at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck during the first few days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

More than 200,000 nurses and others in New Jersey are eligible for the services, either via telephone or through virtual support groups, wellness webinars and other resources on the website nurse2nursenj.com, Rutgers estimates. 

“The pandemic has affected nurses who were already experiencing stress, mental health problems and burnout,” said Mark Graham, executive director of the Rutgers call center. “This year, they have faced long shifts, fear of exposure to the virus that could sicken them and their families, a lack of child care, financial pressures and the deaths of patients and colleagues.”  

Information provided on the calls is confidential, the sponsors say. The website explains that the project is not affiliated with any health care system or nursing organization, and no information from the calls will be shared with employers, co-workers or peers. Nor will anything be reported to the state licensing board for nurses.  

The help line is funded by the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund and the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Hospital Association. 

Addressing the mental health needs of vulnerable New Jersey residents — particularly people of color, students and health care workers — has been a focus of the pandemic relief fund, Tammy Murphy, its founding co-chair, said in a statement.  

Lindy Washburn is a senior health care reporter for NorthJersey.com. To keep up-to-date about how changes in health care affect you and your family, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: washburn@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @lindywa