While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, America’s nursing work force continue to work in the most challenging of circumstances. While expected to hold the fort and continue on, deep inside, they bury an unprecedented level of acute stress, anxiety and depression. Peer support groups have been posed as a possible coping behavior. This cross-sectional designed project was developed to assess the worth and feasibility of a virtual peer support group with a focus on healthcare provider wellness during a period of surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overwhelmed staff, technology/documentation changes and challenges, competing clinical demands, short-staffing and Zoom fatigue were identified as the limiting factors for this project’s completion within its given timeframe. These findings informed of current barriers, providing a basis for future program development to mitigate the impact of psychological distress among healthcare providers. Evolving literature on this topic supports recommendations for further study and action by individual health care providers, organizations and at the state and national levels.

The Salt River in Arizona has been dammed and rerouted away from its natural channel for human use since the late 1930s. Once a thriving hydrological ecosystem and riparian zone, the scar of a dry riverbed snakes through Phoenix, Arizona. The exception to this dry riverbed is a 10-kilometer, lush, riparian corridor to the west of Phoenix where ecosystem rehabilitation has been enabled by the effluent of the Tres Rios Constructed Treatment Wetlands (CTW). This study investigated the ecosystem health of this stretch of river, referred to here as Rio Verdadero, by identifying how water quality is impacted as it flows from east to west. To quantify key water quality indicators, water samples were collected every two months during 2024 at three locations along the river: The Tres Rios CTW outflow, The Base & Meridian Wildlife Area, and the Lower Buckeye Diversion Dam. Additionally, CTW outflow data were used to estimate rates of nutrient sequestration by the riparian ecosystem. Results showed a decline in nutrients and improvement of water quality downstream of the Tres Rios Wetlands, indicating a healthy, functioning riparian ecosystem as a result of natural rehabilitation and intentional restoration that has taken place in the last 15 years.