nursingforsocialjustice

There are three part of registered nursing in Canada: the regulator, the association and the union. There was a time when all three were part of one nursing organization. In British Columbia the Labour part separated and become the nurses union in 1981. Almost 30 years later the association arm separated and became the nurse association. In 2021 there is both confusion about what each of the three organizations does, the value of them to nurses, and an adversarial relationship between some.

I began my nursing career in 2008. At that time I entered a healthcare workplace that was understaffed, lacked in new graduate support, underutilized nurses and found that some were vocal about their discontent with the situation. In 2021 nurses in BC have progressed in some ways, but in some disappointing ways the profession is stagnant. Back when I started my career I was in my mid-20s, I was coming out of a career where I made $27 000/year doing a fulltime job as a youth care worker and behaviour therapist. I experienced regular workplace injury, was in constant fear that I would be fired and was unsure about the ethics of the care the service I worked for was providing. It was a low point in my life. When I became a Registered Nurse it was like I entered a different world. I literally doubled my salary, worked side by side with professionals who cared about their job, and I felt like I was contributing to something good. I was helping people. When I honeymoon phase wore off the challenges in the workplace and in healthcare in general became more clear.

13 years later I love being a nurse. The opportunities that my career as a nurse have provided have allowed me to learn so much, to meet incredible clinicians, to provide care to so many resilient and wonderful patients. And I love it. I love learning about nursing, I love reading about nursing, I love learning about the healthcare system, and teaching student, working with new graduates, connecting with like-minded nurses and other healthcare colleagues. So, it breaks my heart a little when nurses don’t view the profession the same way I do. That’s my bias. I have always viewed my nursing position as a position of privilege. I know of the problems in the system. But I view nurses as powerful, a sometimes unheard but always necessary voice in a holistic perspective that looks beyond a set of problems and diagnoses but sees the person, and their context.

In 2018 I began my PhD in Nursing. My area of research is nurse history. It is not something I knew a great deal about. The history of nursing in Canada is amazing. The work that nurses have accomplished (RNs, RPNs, LPNs) to get to a place of being a self-regulated health profession astounds me. I also realize that there are dark places in our professions past. There was a time not so long ago when physician and other administrators determined what nursing knowledge was, how we would be educated, where we would be educated. That’s not how it is anymore. But, we cannot take that for granted.

Peace,

Michelle D.