Page 5 - The Empowered Nurse - Spring

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FROM MARILYN DUBREE

The World Health Assembly has declared the year 2020 the International Year
of the Nurse and Midwife! Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of
the World Health Organization, stated, “Nurses and midwives are the backbone of
every health system. In 2020 we’re calling on all countries to invest in nursing and
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midwives as part of their commitment to health for all.” At Vanderbilt, our nurses
and midwives are positively impacting health care every hour and every day, deliver-
ing care through kindness and courage. Marilyn Dubree, MSN, RN, NE-BC
Dr. Piero Ferrucci, a psychologist shares that kindness enables people to thrive. Executive Chief Nursing Officer
In his book “The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Com- marilyn.dubree@vumc.org
passionate Life,” he shares that kindness is not a luxury, but actually a necessity.
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Kindness, acts of generosity, add meaning, purpose and positively impacts others.
Author Maya Angelou shares, “As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart,
mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may forget
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your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Courage is a virtue that is essential to excellent nursing practice. There are dif-
ferent types of courage found in the literature, of these, moral courage is key to ex-
emplary nursing. Moral courage is defined by caring, integrity, and knowledge
combined with the ability and willingness to conquer fears.
Nursing’s history is rich with examples of inspirational nurses moving moun-
tains with moral courage. The first African-American registered nurse, Mary Ma-
honey (1845-1926), was described as small in stature, but mighty in character. Anna
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Caroline Maxwell (1851-1929) whose distinguished service during the Spanish-Amer-
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ican War resulted in the formation of Army Nurse Corps. Evelyn Lundeen (1900-
1963), described as a neonatal nurse pioneer, discovered that sunlight could be used
to treat jaundice in premature infants.
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Every day, nurses utilize this moral courage, as patient advocates and health
care leaders. Courage has been described by Franklin D. Roosevelt not as a lack of
fear, but rather, the belief and understanding that there are things more important
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than fear.
This resonates strongly with me and feels very similar to the courage I see in
our VUMC nurses every day. I am grateful for and inspired by the kindness, courage
and perseverance of our nurses. Take time to celebrate and acknowledge the contri-
butions of nurses, during this year of the nurse and midwife!

“

At Vanderbilt, our nurses and midwives are
positively impacting health care every hour
and every day, delivering care through kind-
ness and courage.”