TYLENOL® Fund to Advance Diversity in Nursing and Health Equity Research

Nursing was never a profession I considered growing up—too much blood and guts! But I knew I wanted to help others, and when I learned about nursing’s plethora of career paths that didn’t involve bodily fluids, I decided to enter the field. 

I am a white settler, uninvited guest with German and British ancestry who has lived, worked, and played on a variety of Indigenous lands on Turtle Island. I am a trans, non-binary, and queer RN currently living, learning, and working on Treaty 1. My nursing career thus far has been centered around harm reduction in community, mental, and sexual health, working with people and families of all ages, with a focus on historically disadvantaged groups such as the precariously housed, Indigenous people, and 2S/LGBTQiA+ people in rural and remote locations.  

However, recently, my nursing career has taken an unexpected turn: I have begun taking up space by calling out and calling in those in our profession, seeking accountability and change towards equity for all. Nursing is a profession rooted in colonial, patriarchal, racist, cisheteronormative, ableist, fatphobic, and other oppressive practices. I believe that it’s the responsibility of nurses to disrupt these systems, muddy the status quo, and encourage others to do this messy work with us! 

Thank you, CNF and Tylenol, for seeing that my research focused on gender inclusive and affirming practices in undergraduate nursing education can have a much larger impact on nursing, nursing education, and trans and gender diverse people across the country.