Nurses spend more time with patients than most other types of providers and have unique insight into patient care and the the healthcare system.

When Professional Organizations Are Out of Sync With the Needs of Nurses

The views expressed in this post are those of the author, and do not represent the views of their employers or affiliated institutions, or of AJN and Wolters Kluwer.

One of the many lessons my veteran father taught me was this: actions tell you what a person believes in, and you should believe people when they show you what they believe. This principle applies not just to individuals, but also to organizations run by groups of like-minded people.

Many of our national nursing advocacy organizations, like the American Nurses Association (ANA), National League for Nursing (NLN), and others have been complacent in many arenas of nursing advocacy for far too long. Nurses are more burned out than ever, bedside nurse wages have stagnated, the costs of both health care and education continue to balloon, and there is an ongoing epidemic of violence against health care professionals and citizens alike. I find myself reflecting upon my own efforts to address any of these issues faced by my fellow nurses or community, and I cannot help but look to the largest and most powerful nursing organizations with disappointment at their inaction on even the most straightforward issues.

When professional organizations fall short.

Sure, nursing organizations are good at issuing reports and recommendations. For example, in 2025 a new version of the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses was published. Commitment to society and social justice is one of the provisions, including an ethical obligation for both nurses and their professional […]

2026-03-09T11:56:56-04:00March 9th, 2026|Ethics, Nursing, nursing perspective|1 Comment
Read More

Nurses Have an Ethical Obligation to Demand Accountability for ICE Violence

The views expressed in this post are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of their employers or affiliated institutions, or of AJN and Wolters Kluwer.

On January 24, 2026, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who worked in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Alex died while upholding core nursing values of helping and supporting his community. While standing in opposition to the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, he was directing traffic and helping a woman being pepper-sprayed by CBP. These actions should not have cost him his life. It is now time for us, fellow nurses and leaders, to follow Alex Pretti’s example by advocating for our communities and upholding the core ethical principles of our discipline, including justice, beneficence, and nonmaleficence.

Share this:

2026-02-17T14:54:37-05:00February 17th, 2026|Ethics, Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
Read More

In Times of Overwhelm as a Nurse and Citizen, Begin with One Intentional Act at a Time

Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN

With the recent devastation and loss around our local Los Angeles wildfires as well as our country’s political disarray, one of the most difficult things about trying to remain empathetic, engaged, and informed as an individual and a nurse has been a sense of utter overwhelmedness.

I think most nurses are both empathetic and action-oriented, traits which can be helpful—but also sometimes crippling when we see needs for help and advocacy everywhere and don’t know where to start. Any action feels like such a miniscule drop in the bucket.

I was carrying this emotional, mental, and spiritual heaviness into work with me a couple of days ago. I sat down to get report on my patient assignment. My patient was so sick, so complicated; she’d been teetering between life and death in recent days. Her parents had been on a roller coaster of the worst kind. ‘Two weeks into this hospitalization, are we still holding onto hope for recovery? Are we gathering relatives to say goodbye?’

I knew I was walking into a space that was very loaded for the parents. They had seen many nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors come through their doors. For as long as they had been in our unit, […]

2025-03-03T14:13:18-05:00March 3rd, 2025|family experience, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories, pediatrics|0 Comments
Read More

Beyond ‘Leaning In’: Pull Up a Chair for Others

A commitment to ‘always be at the table.’

Many years after reading Sheryl Sandburg’s 2013 book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, and watching her Ted Talk, “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” the phrase “sit at the table” sticks with me.

At the time I read the book I was working for a hospital system, overseeing a large research team. I often sat in interdisciplinary meetings where the doctors would occupy the seats at the table and the support team members, often early career professionals and nurses, would sit on the periphery of the room. These seats were not assigned—it was just how people sat themselves. In her book, Sandberg observed that those who sit at the sidelines of decisions are more often seen as spectators instead of as active participants or decision-makers.

After finishing the book, I made a commitment that I would always be at the table because I refused to believe that my experience, knowledge, or opinions were any less valuable than those of anyone else in the room.

Bring a chair for someone else.

I now work in a nursing academic setting that seeks to offer an environment of belonging and inclusivity for faculty, students, […]

2024-08-12T13:36:16-04:00August 12th, 2024|equity, Nursing, nursing perspective|1 Comment
Read More

What Nurses Say About Nursing, and What Should Change

A novel AI-assisted approach identified issues and developed recommendations.

There have been many articles about the current challenges in nursing and what might be done to improve nurses’ workplaces and retain nurses. While nurses have proven to be resilient long before, during, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, without changes by the systems in which they work, even the hardiest of nurses will become burned-out.

A recent report notes that the RN vacancy rate is almost 10% and the national turnover rate among hospital nursing staff  is 20%. Surveys cite the familiar reasons: high and intense workload, insufficient staffing, bullying, and lack of support.

Since 2021, the R3:Resilient Nurses Initiative of Maryland has been creating and providing free resources to support nurses and nursing students as they deal with the stress and challenges in health care. Recently the initiative used a unique platform, Slow Talk, to elicit discussions with nurses about their perspectives on nursing and what they think needs to happen so nurses are able to practice in ways that reflect their education and commitments. (Click here to listen to a related podcast discussion about the Slow Talk platform and its value as a place for frontline workers to share […]

2024-07-31T11:18:54-04:00July 29th, 2024|nurse staffing, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Go to Top