Why me? A time to stand up for our fellow nurses.

Why Me?
An interesting title for this particular bit of snark because as nurses, we are the biggest numerical contributor to the healthcare field. Yet, we can’t seem to come together to do much. We can care about our patient’s more than ourselves daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Yet when it comes to doing something for ourselves we can’t do it.
I am on this rant today because the teachers in the state of West Virginia have been on strike for a week, schools closed, pupils not learning. They are standing up for themselves and it is needed and deserved. These teachers are putting in countless hours of work for countless children including extra curriculars of making sure the children have food to eat and get home safely. Maybe it’s time for the nation to take interest.
As nurses, we are very similar. We make impacts on the lives of countless patients, and that includes the extra miles and little things that are the right thing to do. So, when nurses march on Washington, DC to express a desire for safer staffing ratio’s why don’t we all show up? The answer is frustratingly simple: we are afraid to lose our jobs and we are afraid to endanger our patients. “It is not safe for me to take 8 patients as assigned, but if I go to the march, who will be left to take care of them?”
Instead, we lose good nurses. Quality, seasoned nurses who are burned out and don’t want to leave nursing but feel that is all that they can do.
It’s time to stand up for ourselves.