nursingforsocialjustice

Have you ever experienced going about your day, being caught up in the hullabaloo, so focused on the tasks at hand, when you hear a song on the radio or in the background of a movie or television show. Suddenly everything that you were so caught up in falls away, and you are reminded of a special moment in your life, or maybe you do not even remember that particular moment, but you remember that feeling, and you cannot help but smile? This is why I love music and also part of the reason why I love watching television. Sometimes a song, a song that I may have never even heard before, coupled with a scene in a television show. helps me make that little push to change my outlook of a day from dreary to hopeful.

Sometimes I get wrapped up in trying to figure out the next bigger and better thing that I can accomplish, the more difficult challenge that I can take on to feel like I am a bigger and better person, an achiever, a go-getter. And, when I reach certain points in my life, like now for example, I feel a tension between wanting to slow down and enjoy the moment and wishing that I was in the rat race. I think that it is curious, and sometimes confusing, that I place such an emphasis on achieving in my paid work, that I could sacrifice the other pieces of my life like being a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a student, a writer. There are weird moments in my life, in retrospect this may be especially prevalent at times when I am off my paid work on maternity leave, where it seems like opportunities that are seemingly once in a lifetime pop up that make me feel like I am missing something because I am at home nurturing a beautiful little person. I should know by now that none of these opportunities are once in a lifetime because there will always be something that lines up with my career goals when I am ready to go back to work. But knowing this is different than feeling like I missed something or like someone else is going to get the opportunity.

I often think about how the workplaces of nurses can be improved to positively impact the nursing care that is provided. When I take a step back, I realize that I am extremely thankful that I live in a place where I can be off work on maternity leave for 52 weeks with access to Employment Insurance (EI), and work in a job with a union and employer that support my EI being subsidized for 17 weeks so that the financial pressure to return to work is somewhat alleviate. I am not sure if many Canadian working moms know this, but in the United States mothers are lucky if they get time off work, an surprisingly, many return to work after 6 weeks. I am hopeful for a future where nurses in Canada, who are members of a largely unionized profession dominated by women, but also employs many men who are also new parents, have all 52 weeks of their salaries subsidized by the employer so that they can stay home with their babies regardless of gender or if they are the biological parent of the child. There are so many ways that the workplaces of nurses can be improved in terms of supporting nurses work-life balance and creating psychologically and physically healthy workplaces to support healthier nurses and in turn better nursing care and better families and communities where those nurses live and work.

Peace,

Michelle D.