We Were Made for These Times

In 2001, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés penned a Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times, with the subtitle Do Not Lose Heart: We were Made for these Times. And that phrase has insinuated itself into my thoughts so often during these recent days, compelling me to allow it expression. I was a child of the 1950s, born into the rubble that was post-WWII Great Britain, relocating to Canada early in my childhood and coming of age in the era of the Civil Rights Movement, the sexual revolution and reproductive rights for women, the Anti-Vietnam War movement (including the many US draft dodgers who fled north across our borders and, for the most part, stayed). In my young adulthood, I was part of second-wave feminism, gay rights activism, and the multiculturalism movement. And over the years of my academic nursing career, I celebrated the Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation movement in my country, the global awakening beyond the gender binary, the call to climate action, and so many other seasons in which particular rights and freedoms movements inspired us all forward toward such aspirations as emancipatory collaboration, cultural safety, social justice and health for all. It was relatively easy, having witnessed so many social movements toward a world that was more inclusive, fair and just to believe that humankind was basically decent, and we were collectively capable of a natural progression in the direction of rights and freedoms, beyond unfair structural and attitudinal barriers, and into a world in which we could glimpse the ideal of freedom and equality—the kinds of messages that the visionaries of democracy have always led us to believe were both desirable and possible. But in recent times, in key parts of the world that matter, we have witnessed a dramatic upsurge in political conceit and power-mongering, legitimization of alternative facts, normalization of hate speech, eradication of the rights and freedoms of those most in need of a social safety net. We have seen oligarchs with no apparent moral compass placed (and supported) in positions of policy authority and making decisions on behalf of millions of people on the basis of personal whim and a desire to display control. The policy decisions that are being made unilaterally and without intelligent consultation by some governments are rapidly having devastating impacts on such foundational institutions as health care, scientific research, education, and social welfare (Bibbins-Domingo et al. 2025). And the speed of this precipitous decline of established social order, rationality, and good government makes one's head spin. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts—adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take “everyone on Earth” to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale. Nurses understand this. We know what is fundamentally true within our distinctive epistemological core and what our profession has always stood for (Thorne 2017). We understand that the values and ethical code upon which we operate call upon us to act and to advocate (Chinn and Kennedy 2023). We work around and seek to dismantle unspeakable policies and reach out with compassion to ensure that, whatever the circumstances, we support the dignity and wellbeing of all persons (Georges 2014). For the entirety of our profession's history, we have upheld an ethic of social service and social justice (Fowler 2024; Thorne 2014). Our work in this world is firmly grounded in scientific reasoning and evidence-informed practice, and we protect those who are misguided from the effects of coercive misinformation (Varcoe et al. 2014). We enact our everyday practice with an unshakeable commitment to a relational ethic in which all persons are worthy of the best that we can offer as we nurture their trajectory toward health, hope, and a life of quality. We will not be mandated to engage in hateful acts, acts of division and furthering disadvantage, policies that expand the privilege of the few and cause pain and distress in the many. As we showed so clearly during the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be cowed by fear or self-interest, rather we will continue to do what nurses have always strived to do in optimizing health and health equity in the fullest sense of those terms for all. We are a force for good in this world, and we have always understood that as our mission and our privilege. Nurses actually were made for times such as these. We are a force to be reckoned with when we work together toward what we know to be ethical and honorable. Some of our number will study and write and speak publicly about these injustices. Others will stand in protest and work to dismantle them in the name of our profession's commitment to decency and rationality. And every nurse everywhere can be part of that force to tip that balance back toward justice, peace, and Pinkola Estés' “enduring good” through even the smallest acts of compassion, knowledge application, and professionalism that are so integral to nursing's everyday ways of being in this world. The authors have nothing to report.

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