nursingforsocialjustice

It seems like everyday I experience deep existential crises about what my place is in this world. I have four beautiful children who I want to grow up to be four thoughtful adults one day. Sometimes I worry that we won’t get there. Do you ever feel an intense sense of confusion, and panic about if you are making the best decisions, not just for your life but for many lives?

In nursing we say the term “social justice” a lot. But when we say we are doing social justice, how are we doing it? When we are doing nursing, by default are we doing social justice? Is this so because in Canada, in many cases, we are doing nursing in a public system? Or do we have to be active in pursuing equity in order for this social justice doing to occur? Is it naive to believe that somehow social justice is just this organic process that is happening all the time, simply as a result of being a nurse; we have done it, it just is, because of the profession we are in and the doing…without being reflexive of how it is being done? It’s more than just thinking about it, it’s challenging our assumptions and our preconceptions about exactly how, and also if, we are doing it.

Peace and love,

Michelle D.