A collage of women involved in healthcare and civil advocacy.
A collage of women involved in healthcare and civil advocacy. Credit: Museum of Toronto Credit: Museum of Toronto

In the bestselling book The Wisdom of Nurses, nurse authors Amie Archibald-Varley and Sara Fung, also known as the Gritty Nurses podcasters, invite us to play a game.

Let’s play a game. Name as many famous doctors as you can in a minute.

(And no, TV doctors don’t count.)

How many did you come up with – five? ten? fifteen? Maybe some combination of names like Norman Bethune, Wilder Penfield, Sanjay Gupta, Anthony Fauci, Vivek Murthy, Atul Gawande, Theresa Tam, Elizabeth Blackwell, William Osler, Frederick Banting, Henry Morgentaler, Gabor Maté, Brian Goldmn, Carolyn Bennett, Roberta Bondar…

Not a lot of women, but still – a good start!

Now let’s do the same with nurses.

(…)

What’s that? You need more than a minute? No problem! Take your time. We’ll wait.

You only came up with one name, didn’t you?

And that name was Florence Nightingale.

May 12-18 is National Nursing Week, which celebrates the birth of Nightingale, widely considered the founder of modern-day nursing. This year’s theme is The Power of Nurses to Transform Health, highlighting the impact nurses have in shaping health care, driving innovation, and advocating for patient-centred care.

I’ve rarely been impressed with Nursing Week themes. In 2015 the theme was “Nurses: With you every step of the way.” Not so much. Nursing has often ignored the needs of the racialized, Indigenous communities, and people who are homeless.

In Nursing Week 2021 I wrote about that year’s theme ‘We Answer the Call’ (referencing the pandemic) and argued in “Nurses See. We must not be silenced” that the problems in our profession exposed by the pandemic were not new and we must call for a radical shake-up of the profession.

This year’s theme is powerful.

Speaking about nurses and power in the same sentence is a start.

I was recently invited to take part in the Museum of Toronto’s exhibit: The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto. Humbled, I accepted, believing my story and contribution of a few artifacts for display would help show how a nurse can work on conditions of poverty and homelessness.

Spanning from the 1800s until today, the exhibition shines a spotlight on change-makers, rebels and revolutionaries with Toronto’s 52, the exhibit title referencing that 52 per cent of the population are women.

The exhibit is an eye opener and is on until December. Much of it is accessible online.

On opening night, I was immediately drawn to an exhibit in a sports locker displaying a picture of Phyllis Bomberry, a leather catcher’s glove, bat and dirt covered softballs. I learned that Bomberry was a trailblazer for Indigenous women in sports. She began her successful career on the Six Nations of the Grand Reserve, and it culminated in team gold at the inaugural Canada Games. I’m a huge baseball fan but had never heard of her.

Then there were the exhibits honouring activist colleagues I’ve worked with over the years: minister/politician Cheri DiNovo, Toronto city councillor/deputy mayor Ausma Malik, filmmaker Min Sook Lee to name just a few.

The exhibits, both visual and digital, honour huge figures from Toronto’s past. Sculptor Frances Loring, urbanist Jane Jacobs, immigration activist Jean Lumb, Indigenous author Lee Maracle, the transgender pioneer of soul music Jackie Shane. Then there are modern women including author Margaret Atwood, Olympian Penny Oleksiak, activist Jill Andrew and ballerina Karen Kain.

I knew many of the names but there were more that I did not.

I pride myself on knowing nursing history. I’ve written about it and taught it. Ranging from Florence Nightingale to the Grey Nuns, to public health reformers Lillian Wald and Lavinia Dock, nursing history has more recently included critical analysis of our own complicity with racism, colonialism and classism.

So, I welcomed learning about two nurses in the exhibit but also reflected on why I had never learned about them before.

Susan Bailey is described as the head nurse of the Emigrant Hospital, caring for the mostly Irish immigrants in the mid 1880s who contracted typhus. In the summer of 1847, there were 38,000 migrants ill. The actress who portrays Bailey in a short video describes the epidemic conditions, the heat, the pain, the crowding in the hospital, the shortage of beds and her own illness. She succumbed to typhus at the age of 32. It’s hard to not make the comparison to the conditions during the COVID pandemic, especially in long-term care homes.

Bernice Redmon (1917-1993) was the first Black Canadian nurse to practice in public health. She faced racist barriers in Canadian nursing schools so trained in the United States at a segregated nursing school, then returned to Canada to further her studies. The actress who portrays Redmon exudes a spirit of determination and hope and pride in her barrier breaking career. “I’ll never stop being a nurse.”

I relate.

We should know our history.

Nursing power can mean good actions. Case in point:

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) has been working towards building a trusted advocacy role for Indigenous Peoples since Jordan River Anderson from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba was hospitalized from birth with a rare medical condition. He lived for over two years in a hospital because governments did not do the right thing and simply argued about who should pay for his care.

As CFNU President Linda Silas notes: “It is not acceptable that Indigenous people continue to face racism when looking for health care today. The way forward for us is to first apologize for our historical lack of action, apologize for the current risks of racism faced by Indigenous people, and to continue our efforts to lay a strong foundation for future generations. Indigenous people deserve excellent care by nurses, and we commit to doing better.”

CFNU will share their apology at their biennial convention June 3 in Niagara

As we celebrate The Power of Nurses I invite you to do the following:

  • Join CFNU for a live learning event on history – necessary knowledge for reconciliation – and on how to be good partners with Indigenous Peoples.
  • Learn the name of the nurse who probably immunizes you and provides other care in your health care setting.
  • Nursing faculty please teach the concept of knowing our history.
  • Nurses and students please follow rabble.ca to learn the broader context of the society and politics you will be nursing in.
  • Media, learn who are your nurse experts on issues ranging from violence against women to trans rights to COVID to school health.

Happy Nursing Week.

Cathy Crowe

Cathy Crowe

Cathy Crowe is a street nurse (non-practising), author and filmmaker who works nationally and locally on health and social justice issues. Her work has included taking the pulse of health issues affecting...