Seeing Beyond Stigma — Inclusion, Documentation, and the Ethics of Care
In this third article of Seeing Beyond the Stigma: Nursing Practice at the Margins , the story no longer begins with “What is stigma?” or “Who are Alex and Sharna?” We have already explored those questions (if you haven’t , go read articles 1 and 2 of this series). Their missed doses, late arrivals, and visible distress are now understood as part of lives shaped by poverty, trauma, and structural inequity , not as simple “noncompliance.” The work at this stage is different: it is about what nurses do with that knowledge in the flow of everyday practice, especially in the moments when documentation, policy, and split‑second judgments either deepen exclusion or open the door to more just and inclusive care. From Recognition to Responsibility In the earlier posts, stigma was named as more than a personal attitude: it was framed as a social process in which people are labelled, stereotyped, separated, and pushed into lower status in ways reinforced by power. ...