My Nurse InfluencersThe Dauntless Nurse
roe vs. wade

The Dauntless Nurse: Nurses Week and the march on D.C.

Share
By: By Kathleen Bartholomew

Nurses want to celebrate Nurses Week because they love their profession. They’re also marching on Washington, D.C. because they’re suffering.

Nurses’ Week 2022 will be like no other because this year our hearts must be large enough to hold both the sweetness and the sorrow. To do this will take an enormous amount of courage.

The word “courage” means “to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” So, let me try to capture as much of the story as I can because to ignore or deny any part of our reality would be a great disservice. In her Caritas 5, Jean Watson asks that we allow for the expression of both the positive and negative.

As many of you know, I could tell stories all day long of how nurses intervened and cared for their patients in poignant and creative ways that demonstrated profound compassion, skill, and knowledge. I love this profession and simply being with my fellow nurses, whom I deeply respect. I love that nursing offers me the opportunity to apply my intelligence and work so closely with humanity that my interactions with patients often feel sacred. To me the best way to celebrate Nurses Week is always to tell your family, friends, and communities at least one of these stories. The public still doesn’t understand that healing happens in our hands.

But my joy for nursing has been tempered by another reality. This week an emergency department nurse died by suicide at work in San Francisco where 5,000 nurses are on strike to fight for safer working conditions, safe staffing, and mental health services. They’re overworked and overwhelmed because they feel like factory widgets in leaned profitable hospitals where violence has escalated and 25% of nurses have reported being physically assaulted. Then I got a text from two nurses in a North Carolina emergency department who were caring for 40 patients. Then another from two brand new nurses caring for six intensive care unit patients by themselves, feeling recklessly abandoned. Add to this a nurse who’s being sentenced for criminally negligent homicide for making a mistake. Enough is enough!

And so, we are marching on Washington, D.C.—but hardly in solidarity. On social media nurse bloggers attack with poisonous slander, shaming, and gossip, often using racism as a tool because they don’t know what else to hit each other with. This is classic oppression. Without power, a group unconsciously starts infighting and attacking each other because they have forgotten (or have never known) how worthy and wonderful they each are after being overpowered for decades. But we can have power if we are dauntless. Here’s what we can do:

  • Realize that the root of our suffering is the fact that healthcare is a big business and profits are more important than, well, anything…your mental health, staffing, healthy communities, etc.
  • Celebrate Nurses Week 2022 by calling your legislators, telling your story, and supporting legislation to prevent violence and promote safe staffing.
  • Look tenderly at your coworker and tell them how much you appreciate them. Be specific and make eye contact to ensure the compliment is received. Look out for each other.
  • Don’t engage in social media gossip, blaming, or scapegoating. It’s beneath this noble profession. The public won’t value us until we value ourselves.

kathleen-bartholomew-dauntless-nurseKathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN, is an internationally recognized patient safety and health culture expert. Kathleen has spoken on leadership, communication, patient safety, and peer relationships to hospital executives and nurse leaders for twenty years.

All of her books come from her passion to understand the stories of nurses.  Her books, “Ending Nurse to Nurse Hostility” and “Speak Your Truth” illuminate our relationships with our peers and physician partners.  She is also co-author of “The Dauntless Nurse” which was written as a communication confidence builder.

Kathleen is also a guest Op Ed writer to the Seattle Times and has been interviewed twice on NPR’s “People’s Pharmacy”. Her Tedx Talk calls for changing our belief system from a hierarchy to equality in order to keep our patients safe – and also explains how disaster thrust her into ‘the best profession ever’.

You can also find more information about Kathleen on her websiteTwitter, and Facebook

 

 

The views and opinions expressed by My Nurse Influencer contributors are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or recommendations of the American Nurses Association, the Editorial Advisory Board members, or the Publisher, Editors and staff of American Nurse Journal. These are opinion pieces and are not peer reviewed.

2 Comments. Leave new

  • I am SO proud to call @Kathleen Bartholomew my colleague and friend. We have dug deep in our separate and multiplied passion (along with Nurses TransformingHealthcare colleagues Kim Evans John Silver and Cheryl Witt) to forge a way toward Healthcare focused on wellness and disease prevention while led by nurses! Love you KB

    Reply
  • Amy Caudill
    May 11, 2022 4:45 pm

    Well spoken! I have often advocated for nurses to stand up for themselves as one group, one voice! We have a lot of complaining and bickering, but we do not step up when it comes to demanding better for our profession! I love nursing and all it has given to me, however, if we don’t fix this, no one will want to become a nurse anymore.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

cheryl meeGet your free access to the exclusive newsletter of American Nurse Journal and gain insights for your nursing practice.

NurseLine Newsletter

  • Hidden

*By submitting your e-mail, you are opting in to receiving information from Healthcom Media and Affiliates. The details, including your email address/mobile number, may be used to keep you informed about future products and services.

Test Your Knowledge

Which of the following is correct about the stages of sleep?

More Nurse Influencers