Provision 9
Nurses and their professional organizations work to enact and resource practices, policies, and legislation to promote social justice, eliminate health inequities, and facilitate human flourishing.
9.3 Advancing the Nursing Vision of a Good and Healthy Society
It is the shared responsibility of all people and nurses in particular to articulate and advance the notions of good and health within a society. Nursing has a vision for a good society that arises from the values at the core of the profession. A good society is one that treats everyone with respect and dignity, balances justice and compassion, and regards humanity without hierarchy. Nursing strives to create and maintain a good society that supports the opportunity for its members to coexist and flourish. Goodness and flourishing do not require a perfect universe. Individual nurses work toward goals for which they are best equipped, consistent with their knowledge, skills, interests, and commitments. Attainment of a good and healthy society requires that nursing recognize the imperfections in society and focus on sustainable changes that reflect nursing’s virtues and values.
Nurses leverage their specific roles and expertise within varied settings to advance the vision of nursing. Nurses contribute to this vision individually and collectively. Through the power of professional organizations, nursing works to dismantle structural barriers to a good and healthy society. It is essential that nursing regularly and systematically assess strategic plans and the articulated mission and values of professional nursing organizations to ensure the organizations remain aligned with the values of nursing. Advancing the vision of a good and healthy society can occur through professional organizations that support nurses to influence and transform social and structural determinants of health and policy that impact communities and society.
More specific examples of influencing good and health through professional organizations include addressing: the increasing complexity of healthcare; the failure to employ less costly community health models of care; that healthcare is driven more by profit than by ethics; the realities of food insecurity, shrinking water resources, and energy production choices; the consequences of gun violence; disinformation and misinformation; discrimination in all forms; and climate change and environmental justice.