'Courage needed for nurses to stand up'

[cougarnurse]

Interesting article that says something to all of us: TheWesternStar.com: Local | Courage needed for nurses to stand up: VP

Joy Richards knows she’s a bit of a radical, but the vice-president of professional practice and chief nursing executive for the Scarborough Hospital in Toronto wants all nurses to speak up and be courageous.

Richards gave the keynote address to the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador annual general meeting in Corner Brook Monday morning.

She liked how timely the conference’s theme — “Nursing Advocacy — RNs Making a Difference — was.

Her speech was entitled “The Courage to Advocate: Finding the voice to Make an Impact.”

“It’s a strong theme and it’s an important theme for all of us in the room today, particularly at this pivotal time when the worked seems to be teetering on the edge of chaos,” Richards told the conference.

“With economic downturns and all kinds of issues with the environment it really seems as if our world has gone mad.

“Advocacy really stands in a place where we need to be paying attention.”

She said advocacy is about more than standing up for what you think is right, it’s about bringing different perspectives together and finding a way to move forward.

Nurses have a lot of knowledge and she said they bear witness to great joys and things people never want to speak of again.

The profession, she said, is in a unique position to bring about change for the better.

Time isn’t linear when it comes to advocacy because, according to Richards, results can come years after the conversation ends.

She said it’s important to keep communications open and frank in the face of differing viewpoints and it’s difficult when gag orders are in effect.

“Sometimes you have to speak and suffer the consequences,” she said. “In my study when I was looking at courageous nursing leaders across Canada, many of them had been publicly fired for taking a stand on things.

“Sometimes it takes that form of sacrifice in order to open up other kinds of dialogue. Sometimes those ideas are ahead of themselves. Sometimes people are years ahead in their thinking and the community or the environment is not quite ready to listen. It’s hard. I think people are afraid and fear is a very real element ... but we have to get beyond that. We have to be able to speak the truth no matter what.”

The Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador’s AGM wraps up Wednesday.

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