Nursing: The oppressed profession

Various inequalities exist in structured social systems. Women, people of color, the
uneducated, the poor, and those who face disabilities have often gone voiceless and powerless
throughout history, and their struggles persist today. These groups of people are marginalized
and face discrimination, prejudices, and sometimes oppression. Discrimination can happen
anywhere, a power imbalance exists between groups of people, such as in education, in social
and political contexts, and even health care. However discrimination in health care is disturbing
as it violates the norms articulated by health care providers.

Nursing profession has changed drastically over time. Roles and responsibilities have
increased and became more far complicated. Nurses are managers, leaders, supervisors,
advocates, educators and faced with everyday task of improving and strengthening professional
leadership within their work environment. Providing critical care, supporting patient autonomy,
managing good quality and eliminating the risk is their major challenge. Though times and roles
have changed, nurses continue to be an oppressed group as they have experienced repeated,
widespread, and systematic injustice under a system by physicians, administrators, and
marginalized nurse managers. And since, nurses being the frontline and back bone of the health
care sector, they are more likely associated with the risk of workplace violence because they tend
to receive verbal abuse from patients. Oppression, just like discrimination, it imbalances groups
causing constraints not only in the physical environment, but also in social realations. Given this
situations, do you think nurses still has the urge to preserve core values which promote justice,
equality and fairness? Are they still willing to carry the standards of care in the area?

There are many factor that contributes in the oppression in nursing. Within the health
care setting, health professionals, including physicians, nurses, allied health, managers, and
hospital administrators, must come together and develop policies to address discrimination, and
eliminate abuse and disrespectful behavior in the workplace. It is important to foster trust,
respect, openness, and a positive attitude to other health care professions.