Nursing Interventions for Corporate Amnesia

"I am not a critical person by nature."

I said this a lot when I was in graduate school studying sociology. My friends noticed about me a propensity to be hyper-critical when it came to examining the hypocrisy and unfairness of power structures. In saying this about myself, my point was that it is not natural to be so critical...one has to learn the skill. I learned it well.

No longer a social scientist by trade, I have not been able to shake off the critical legacy of those years. Even as a nurse, when faced with bureaucracy, hierarchy, and corporatism, I tend to revert to my sociological underpinnings to reveal the negative aspects of these realities in my workplace.

Others around me--nurses and administration--don't seem to understand this, and I am not sure why. Wouldn't my nursing and my understanding of the organizational context within which I do it be different if I brought to it a different background: literature, law, mortuary science? Of course.

In short, some don't understand why I think about such things. More specifically, administration does not understand why I, as a nurse, think at all.


Recently, I was fired. Ostensibly, the reason for the termination was said to be "insubordination," a euphemism (in my opinion) for having a different opinion.

In fact, the reasons stipulated on the disciplinary action plan that they eventually agreed to after tempting me to voluntarily resign rather than face termination, had more to do with subjective interpretations of my words and attitudes than they do any objective assessment of my nursing skills, performance, or any realistic "threat" I present to the administration or the organization, in general.

Ironically, the overall attitudinal problem they seem to think I have is that of believing the organization is divided into two main groups, nursing staff and administration, and that when problems arise, this division often plays out as a "them versus us" scenario. Ironic because the very concept they accuse me of believing and espousing (at times) is the reality they were using to try to eliminate me as an employee!

As Yosarian said, "That's some catch, that Catch-22!"

Okay. Am I a member of the same bureaucratic organization as they are? Does the same hierarchy of power exist in their world as mine? Does one's position--them on the top, me/us near the bottom--really blind one to an understanding of the nature of authority and the perceived inviolability of command?

What dream world do they live in?

I once heard--and I think E. P. Thompson, the famous English labor historian originally said it--that the real difference between owners and workers, between corporations and labor unions, is that the latter have memory while the former exhibit selective amnesia. In corporate hospital culture, even though in this case it is a non-for-profit corporation, the same is true.

How else to explain how the CEO and CNO can tell me I'm fired one day and then several days later confront me with smiles on their faces, wanting to chat about how things are in my life? If they are just trying to save face, I wonder what sort of face they see in the mirror.

Call it my negative attitude, call it my dark humor, call it my knee-jerk reaction to authority. But don't sweep it under the rug! Challenge me, make me explain myself, TELL ME I'M WRONG!!!

No. It's easier for them to say I'm rude or sarcastic...so much easier than saying I'm mistaken, or wrong, or a bad nurse.

What is the cure for this corporate amnesia? Learn to be critical, learn to be honest, learn to speak truth to power. That's what I've tried to do with my life. I did it when I was a social scientist; I'll do it now as a nurse. For I didn't leave everything behind when I became a nurse.

Wonder why they don't understand this?