Days Gone By

Tuesday and Wednesday were uneventful, with one exception. I got the last of the speakers for the AHRQ conference. Relief! Now I can turn to doing KRISP work on Friday and maybe manuscript writing on Saturday.

And, that little email I sent to the listseve yesterday did indeed generate lots of discussion and posts. I found it fascinating how differently individuals read the original email and chose differnt foci. The emotions were present in all of the emails. Public health nurses feeling slighted, ignored by the nursing profession, expressing profound uncertainties aobut their collective futures, and more than a hint of anger.

I came to realize some time ago that anger is a peculiar emotion. It often serves to energize in the face of overwhelming odds. And, that's what I saw as thread in the posts. Angry public health nurses, struggling to find validation for who they are professionally and for what they do. Unfortunately, although anger can energize, that energy does not allows get manifesed in ways that are benficial, that are PC or that challenge rationales.

Nonetheless, I'm glad that I stirred the pot and urged the group to take unifed action. We need the leaders to step up and be leaders. We need leaders to be visible, like generals before a war. We, public health nurses need this. The urgency and the timing is now. If we miss this moment in history, we only have ourselves to blame.