To start the year, nurses and the profession of nursing are, again, taking a prominent place in the dialogue of public events. Earlier this year, the Dept of Education removed ‘professional occupation’ status from advanced practice nurses. Last week a nurse and union sibling was shot and killed in public by ICE agents. Nurses in New York City continued strike for nearly four weeks in pursuit of safe staffing and better wages. All three of these stories point to different threats to our most marginalized communities. As healthcare providers, we need to protect and elevate their voices.
For example, the Dept of Education decision directly removes funding opportunities for nurses seeking to obtain advanced practice degrees. The result will be even fewer opportunities for minority nurses – in other words, fewer nurse practitioners who represent the populations they serve.* This exacerbates an ongoing dangerous trend of disconnecting US working-class folks from influence in their own healthcare.
Alex Pretti’s murder brings the nursing community to the front of the conversation about immigrant rights. Nursing unions and the nurses that comprise their membership are calling to abolish ICE. Nurses advocate for wellbeing of the whole personregardless of their immigration status, including their ability to exist safely in their neighborhoods long enough to connect with care. Nursing unions support and strive for the well-being of nurses as workers, including a large number of nurses and caregivers who are also immigrants.
When nurses strike for staff staffing, frontline caregivers take significant personal risks to demand that health systems provide financial and operational support to guarantee that every patient receives a high standard of care. When nurses and other healthcare providers are not allowed proper staffing and equipment, often in the name of maximizing profit, patients and their families are the ones who suffer.
According to the AACN, there are at least 4.7 million registered nurses in the US. The ANA lists nursing the most trusted profession of the year for the 25th time this century. Nursing at its core is a profession of caring, and we deserve the opportunity to care for all people in a manner consistent with our professional standards and code of ethics. I encourage all nurses to hold onto our identity as nurses and as people who are deeply invested in human care.
We have to hang on to our identity as nurses and as people who are deeply invested in human care. – Dr. Billy Rosa
*The (advanced practice registered nurse) APRN workforce in the US is 76% white and 82% speak only English. This is not representative of the US population. (HRSA, 2022)
ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
AACN: American Academy of the Colleges of Nursing
ANA: American Nurses Association