nursingforsocialjustice

I do not know why it still surprises me when I read a news story about some great health related initiative and find that there is no mention of nursing care. It still makes my heart sink when I see the mention of the physician that leads the program, maybe the pharmacist or allied health member of the team, and the generic labels used to describe the rest of the team. As far as the inpatient setting, nurses are the most numerous regulated health care professional who the most contact time with patients. What is the effect on practising nurses when the hierarchy of healthcare is perpetuated? As nurses, we have a responsibility to make sure our voices are at the table, for successes and to speak out about social justice issues in health care. Lately, it seems like the only press nurses get is about workplace rights issues…and some prominent nurses who are advocating for social justice related to social determinants of health…does it not seem a strange imbalance? What will the turning point be, where nurses are considered to be legitimate experts in health care such that their opinions are on the same level as physicians?

Is it important for nurses in positions of prominence to deliberately attached their prominence to their role of being a nurse? Why does the being a nurse have different weight of credibility than other health care professionals?

I wonder, are nurses often members of interdisciplinary health care research teams? I also wonder, when a physician leads a research team do they often hold a masters or doctoral degree? Do nurses? And if this is different, why?

Peace,

Michelle D.