There is a time and place for silence, but only when it is freely chosen, not imposed. But now is not the time for silence. Now is the time to step us, speak out, and, at least in the United States, to vote. It is time to remember that progress on human rights and social justice issues in our world is not a given. That basic respect for girls and women is not a given. That universal abhorrence of gender-based violence is not a given. We all have to work for it—even when (and especially when)—our lives are turned upside down.
Nurses are the most trusted professionals in both the U.S. and the U.K. (although tellingly, nursing was only added as a legitimate profession to these polls in the U.K. two years ago). As nurses, we have always prided ourselves on being truthful, for speaking out and advocating for our individual patients or communities. But for various reasons (including a lack of contemporary role models or inclusion in nursing curricula), nurses have not be so good at political advocacy and activism.
Historically, nursing does have some amazing examples of nurses who bucked the status quo, spoke truth to power—who were radical nurses. Florence Nightingale in the U.K.—and especially her work after the Crimean War in bringing nurses to work in poor/workhouses in England. And in the U.S., my favorite historical role model is Lillian Wald in New York City. Lillian Wald founded the Henry Street Settlement in the poorest section of New York City, and she founded public health nursing. Public, community, population health nursing is what drew me to nursing in the first place and it continues to be my passion. Public health nursing work is always political work.
In the U.K. in the 1980s there was the short-lived but influential Radical Nurses Group (RNG). Some of their archived material was the subject of a (again, short-lived) blog, “The Radical Nurses Archive” written by a former NHS nurse using the lovely pseudonym, The Grumbling Appendix (with another blog on nursing and politics in the U.K. that ended in 2015). Where have the radical nurses in the U.K. gone? I am currently on a quest to find them.
Back in the U.S. we have the NurseManifest website and resources on nursing and activism co-founded by Sue Hagedorn, Peggy Chinn, and Richard Cowling. Beginning in the summer of 2018, they have added the Nursing Activism Project with a growing list of historical and contemporary nurse activists “Inspirations for Activism.” In addition, they have a dynamic list of resources for nurse activism.
No excuses. All you nurses out there in the world: Get informed. Get inspired. Get active.
I include a recent interview I had with my colleague here at Edinburgh Napier University School of Nursing and Social Care, Dr. Peter Hillen, on nursing and activism.
JOSEPHINE ENSIGN 