Tomorrow is cancelled: Rethinking nursing resistance as insurrection

Abstract

Recent events such as the COVID 19 pandemic and racist police violence have contributed to a heightened awareness about the nature and origin of health care disparities. Nurses are portrayed as heroes while expected to work with no equipment, and nursing organizations release antiracist statements, while little is done to address the underlying conditions that cause disparities. In this paper, we engage with ideas from The Invisible Committee and other theorists to suggest that nursing needs to develop new ways of thinking about both its past and its present politics if any chance of a radical new future is possible.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• critical theory
• destituent power
• insurrection
• nursing resistance