The argument made here could be made to apply to a good many professions, including nursing. I am an RN and have seen more than a few nurses fired for nothing more than trying to get patients the appropriate care, trying to ensure physicians adhere to guidelines for care, as well as refusing to allow a hospital or nursing home to hide incidents that occurred that directly led to poor care, including the death of patients.
But do you see nurses with something that approaches tenure. Quite obviously not. Most people have no real understanding of what nurses do day in and day out either, what makes your profession so special. Real nursing is not ER, and most certainly not Hawthorne.
Personally I think speaking out for human lives is much more important than speaking out regarding political viewpoints. And I’ll say this, nurses do it day in and day out, put up with some of the most obnoxious behavior from physicians and learn to get around some of the most asinine administrative rules meant to make some agency happy who doesn’t get your job either and we do it all without any guarantee of being able to keep that job. I guess that means nurses have more guts than the average professor. Most states don’t even have whistle blower protection.
I was taught by a strong father to stand up, stand up, stand up for what you believe in. If a person is willing to do so only when they have nothing to lose just what does that really mean to the person your trying to teach? You teach that it’s only worth speaking out when your totally comfortable and not fearful at all, and thus you teach others to have the same amount of courage. None.
