Co-contributors - Lucinda Canty, Christina Nyirati Over the past year, the Nursology.net team members have developed a thread of blogs focused on Action Defending Democracy. The "Overdue Reckoning" discussions provide a way for nurses to come together and engage in emancipatory action! These actions are fundamental to our ethical duty as nurses, and to emancipatory … Continue reading Action Defending Democracy: Overdue Reckoning on Racism in Nursing – March 28, April 4, 18 & 25
Action Defending Democracy
Emancipatory Nursing and the Limits of Political Neutrality
Contributor - Kaija Freborg, DNP, RN, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC Helpless. This is how a Minneapolis nurse described feeling in response to the militarized occupation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota, an operation that is being used to disappear immigrants, racialized people, and others who stand in the way. With despair, the nurse recounted having … Continue reading Emancipatory Nursing and the Limits of Political Neutrality
Russell–Fawcett Model and Local Governance for Community Health Nursing Praxis
Guest Contributor: Ann M. StalterCommunity/Public Health Nurse Educator Local governments make decisions daily that shape the health and well-being of communities, yet nurses rarely serve on the boards and councils where these decisions occur. The absence of nurses in such political spaces is significant because they comprise the largest sector of the health care workforce … Continue reading Russell–Fawcett Model and Local Governance for Community Health Nursing Praxis
Call Them Somali Americans
Contributor - Kathleen "Katie" Clark, DNP, RN Witness - Why we cannot look away I write this as a nurse educator in Minneapolis, where federal immigration enforcement has become part of everyday life. As nurses, we have a fundamental responsibility to respond to the crises and challenges of our time, centering on emancipatory approaches. As … Continue reading Call Them Somali Americans
Nursing Voices in the US Immigrant Crisis
Alex Pretti, ICU nurse assassinated by ICE on January 24, 2026 At our January Nursology.net Advisory Team Zoom meeting, we heard from a colleague who lives and works in the great city of Minneapolis. She spoke of the suffering in her neighborhood, where people are being terrorized by atrocities committed against Brown people and others. … Continue reading Nursing Voices in the US Immigrant Crisis
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) 25th Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, May 2013: A Personal Recollection
Contributor - Miriam Hirschfeld, DNSc, RN Late in the year 2012 I am approached by Canadian colleagues requesting my help in their campaign to elect Prof. Judith Shamian, the Canadian Chief Nurse, as President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). Judith is a friend, I am delighted to try to help, knowing also that … Continue reading The International Council of Nurses (ICN) 25th Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, May 2013: A Personal Recollection
Reflections for the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday and a Call to Action
Out of a checkered past, the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday has come to represent a time to enjoy and appreciate the bonds of family and friends, and indulge in the bounties that characterize a celebratory meal. However, as nurses this year we cannot in good conscience ignore the realities that have been heaped on too many … Continue reading Reflections for the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday and a Call to Action
Action Defending Democracy – Update
Action Defending Democracy In my blog of July 4, 2025 titled Action Defending Democracy, my focus was on the maxims for surviving and thriving authorianism that are set forth by Ruth Ben-Ghiat . These maxims are: Participate in non-violent protest in your writing, your work, at home, and on the streets Develop resilience for the … Continue reading Action Defending Democracy – Update
Action Defending Democracy
Last November, Nursology.net initiated a blog category - "action defending democracy" with a post authored by Dr. Robin Walter titled "The Value of Integrating Nursing Theories in an Era of Legislative Censorship." On this day that commemorates the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence, we invite Nursology.net visitors to reflect on these blogs, … Continue reading Action Defending Democracy
🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
My beloved aunt, my mother’s sister, was a Southerner, what one might have called a “genteel woman” who was never harsh but could be stern. There would be no thought of using a curse word; Heaven forfend! When the men cursed she said it was “a mite tee-jus” to have to listen. Should any of … Continue reading 🤬 and Banned Words: Advancing our Scholarship and Activism of Outrage – Part II
Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Introduction In their recent article, “Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship” (https://pen.org/banned-words-list/), Pen America compiled a list of 250 words unacceptable to the Trump administration that soon became a list of 350 words. Not to be outdone, Reuters, Gizmodo, The Washington Post, Propublica, More Perfect Union, Science, 404 Media, Popular … Continue reading Banned Words and a Scholarship and Activism of Outrage
Woe to those who make unjust laws
Ethical Knowing in NursingBlogs by Marsha Fowler Isaiah 10.1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?To whom will you run for … Continue reading Woe to those who make unjust laws
A Firestorm for Justice
See Nursing Ethics, 1880s to the Present: An Archaeology of Lost Wisdom and Identity by Marsha D. M. Fowler I must begin with an admission that, having lost my home and my possessions to the Altadena wildfire, I have become entranced by fire in both its destructive and constructive power. Technically my home was not destroyed … Continue reading A Firestorm for Justice
Nurses Join Together in Solidarity and Resistance
2025 Nurses' Declaration of Solidarity and Resistance Nurses worldwide share a deep concern, even horror, as we witness the violent and unjust assaults the Trump administration is committing against the health and well-being of people who reside within the borders of the United States. In March, Sally Thorne, Editor of Nursing Inquiry, published an editorial … Continue reading Nurses Join Together in Solidarity and Resistance
Canadian Nurses and our ethical mandate: The impact of American politics
Contributors: Cameron R. Albright, Lisa Bland, Lisa Goldberg In our recently published commentary in the Halifax Examiner, “an independent, investigative, and adversarial news site” in Atlantic Canada, we three Canadian nurses address the disruptive and ethically reprehensible policies emerging from the United States (US).. By drawing attention to the Canadian Code of Ethics for Registered … Continue reading Canadian Nurses and our ethical mandate: The impact of American politics
Impending Destruction of NINR?
Contributor: Jane M. Georges, PhD, RNAuthor: Theory of Emancipatory Compassion Amid massive cuts to research funding at NIH, the administration has fired the Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) with a proposal to "consolidate" NINR into a larger entity (see report here ). This action will have a profound impact on nursing … Continue reading Impending Destruction of NINR?
False Equivalencies in Nursing Ethics
Part 1: A Call for Moral Clarity Sally Thorne’s March 11 (2025) “We Were Made for These Times” editorial in Nursing Inquiry stimulated a lively discussion among nurse leaders about our ethical obligations (see for example, our Nursology.net March 21st post). Given the tumultuous challenges we are confronting every day now, the group was energized … Continue reading False Equivalencies in Nursing Ethics
“We Were Made for These Times”
This is the title of Sally Thorne's editorial in Nursing Inquiry published on March 11, 2025. The editorial is "free access" - meaning that reading and downloading the PDF file is free of any cost. Her message is clear - in the face of organized and powerful assaults on human health and freedom, nurses are … Continue reading “We Were Made for These Times”
The Value of Integrating Nursing Theories in an Era of Legislative Censorship
Contributor: Robin R. Walter The problem of legislative censorship in academia is an ongoing issue of national scope. Since January 2021, 44 states have introduced bills, passed legislation, or taken other steps locally that would restrict teaching critical theory or limit how (or if) faculty can discuss Black history, racism, sexism, privilege, oppression, and issues … Continue reading The Value of Integrating Nursing Theories in an Era of Legislative Censorship