Classics Colloquium (3/17): The Tragedy of a Nurse’s Moral Injury

The Nurse Antigone zoom reading was presented to honor nurses all over the world through the lens of Sophocles’s play, Antigone. The webinar detailed a group of actors, nurses, and other volunteers acting out Antigone. Afterwards, the organizers of the play held a discussion period where some of the readers, many of them nurses, gave their thoughts about the play and what they took away from the experience. Nurses from New York Presbyterian and representatives from John’s Hopkins were also given time to discuss what they took away from the play and how it related to their experiences during the pandemic. This was a great webinar to attend as I was able to listen to a rendition of Antigone and hear about the experiences of nurses during the pandemic. Many of the nurses involved in the webinar were able to relate to the play on a personal experience, as they compared the actions of several characters in the play, to their actions during the pandemic. Many of the nurses had to do whatever it took to save patients during the pandemic, even if they knew they would face consequences for their actions. Their actions compared to the actions of Antigone, as she realized that she needed to properly bury and honor her brother, even though she knew she was not allowed to. Her conscious would eat her alive if she had not and resulted in “moral injury”, this is similar to nurses in the pandemic who suffered moral injury, as the pandemic took a toll on them. Within the play, the chorus could be seen as nurses in the pandemic, as the chorus had the knowledge and answers to avert tragedy, just as nurses have the expertise to combat tragedy in the real world. People do not listen to the chorus, just as they do not listen to nurses a lot of the time. One nurse reflected on his experiences in dealing with conflict during the pandemic as he really had to think and understand what his patients were going through in order to connect them and help them in the best ways possibles. I enjoyed hearing about this because it gave me a first-hand perspective on how difficult it was for nurses to work during the pandemic. Not just physically, but mentally, nurses were exhausted and were doing everything they could to save people, even if it meant they might get in trouble and face disciplinary action. Antigone’s action in the play are a direct parallel to the nurses who did and continue to stand up to the inequities in health care. These inequities were very prevalent during the pandemic, and nurses spoke up about these inequities in order to get everyone the help they deserved and needed.