A Different Kind of Nurses Week
Nurses Week was May 6-12, 2020. This is a week in which we typically celebrate the profession of nursing and the impacts that it has on patients, families, colleagues, and the world. Yet it honestly seemed somewhat out of place to be celebrating. Initial thoughts that raced through my mind were in celebrating, will someone find the means to provide enough PPE for healthcare workers? With this celebration will birthers be able to safely receive care and birth in hospital settings in ways that continue to support the physiological and emotional/spiritual needs of birth despite new policies and guidelines? Will Black folks receive better treatment or at least recognition through some means that nurses can formulate? Are they the bridge to fill in the gap and fix the messed-up medical culture? Will this celebration in some way bring back Ahmaud Arbery and justice to his name with proper sentencing of his killers? Will the world ever open again?
Do these thoughts seem heavy to you? Yes? Because they are. And I can’t help but think ‘how do I even begin to celebrate amidst so much unknown and tragedy’? In no way do I want to take away from the advances in nursing, the success stories, the stories of selflessness and caring for humanity—unbiased and unashamed. But I feel I just wouldn’t be the nurse and person that I am without acknowledging and fighting for the injustices that exist in our world of nursing; a world that crosses over to so many other realms.
For most, nursing is not a profession that comes with ease. It takes compassion and understanding and wrestling with our own inner demons to truly take care of others in the ways that they need our help. This spans well past the physicality of nursing and into the heart of a person. So as much as celebrating is ‘our’ thing, the reality is, many of us nurses have found it difficult to celebrate when our hearts are aching in the world around us.
So how do we ‘make this right’? This requires a redirection of thought: be the change, celebrate smaller victories (when the big ones seem overwhelming and unrealistic), vocalize concern for inaccuracy/biased care/oppressive culture, don’t just ‘run with Ahmaud’—use your power (find your power) so that one of the many things going wrong can begin to go right!
