Nurse educators in hospital or academic settings are in position to promote leadership for social change through intentional programming and experiences for both student nurses and young graduate nurses. According to Read et al. (2016), social change is an active process that starts with insight and can be practiced by student nurses and experienced nurses alike. Before starting my journey to complete my degree, I did not give social change much thought. I assumed “everyone else” was doing it and I made excuses for the busyness of my life with a husband and four children. I cared about our society and was upset by the upheaval but felt like my hands were tied. Walden University opened my eyes to the necessity of getting involved in our communities and to be concerned with the issues of poverty, food insecurity, and lack of healthcare.
Last year I decided to stretch myself and become an adjunct clinical nursing instructor for a community college, the same college I graduated from 27 years previous. I loved teaching senior nursing students how to function in their role in a hospital setting. I was given an opportunity this Spring and again in the Summer to be the instructor for the student’s community rotation. I had done home health nursing in the past and felt very comfortable with this assignment. Our rotation is in the heart of the city of Harrisburg at a high-rise apartment complex, mostly inhabited by older adults, but there are a handful of young adults with permanent disabilities. The students spend their time in the community room taking blood pressures, engaging in conversation, and providing education to the residents. They also do home visits where they can assess the residents’ living conditions, food supply, and safety issues.
Thurman and Pfitzinger-Lippe (2017) state that it is our professional responsibility and obligation to participate in sociopolitical activities. Before this rotation, I did not see how and why I would need to do this. I now spend our pre-conference and post-conference time educating the students on food insecurity and we walk the neighborhood so that they can see that these residents live in a food-desert. Through education and partnering with local agencies, we are now having fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to the residents. It is the nurse’s responsibility to actively analyze the social injustices around us that involve discrimination, oppression, and lack of goods (Thurman & Pfitzinger-Lippe, 2017).
As I prepare to graduate and decide where this degree where lead me, I know that it will involve teaching the next generation of nurses how to be socially aware of the inequities that continue to threaten the health of our population (Valderama-Wallace, 2017). Whether I choose to do this inside of a classroom, a clinical site, or my hospital, I cannot unsee how people live. I will be a voice to the voiceless and propose change on their behalf.
Read, C. Y., Pino Betancourt, D., M., & Morrison, C. (2016). Social change: A framework for inclusive leadership development in nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(3), 164-167. http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.3928/01484834-20160216-08
Thurman, W. & Pfitzinger-Lippe, M. (2017). Returning to the profession’s roots. Advances in Nursing Science, 40 (2), 184-193. https://doi.org.10.1097/ANS.0000000000000140.
Valderama-Wallace, C.P. (2017). Critical discourse analysis of social justice in nursing’s foundational documents. Public Health Nurs, 34: 363– 369. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/phn.12327
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