I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

In every nurse’s career, there are people whose stories challenge us to look beyond the surface, to see the complex intersections of health, identity, and circumstance. Consider Alex and Sharna, a couple who have navigated many years of living in relationship with opioids, including stretches of reduced use and times when they were not using at all. Their histories hold layers of trauma, loss, resilience, and care, as well as repeated efforts to adapt, survive, and move toward safety and stability. Yet, for many clinicians, the ways their lives show up in care, the missed appointments, periods of renewed use, or struggles with mental health, can still trigger frustration before compassion. Stigma is not just an attitude; it is a social process that shapes care .  Link and Phelan (2001) describe stigma as a relationship between labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination ,   all operating within unequal power dynamics. In the healthcare setting, these ...

  In the attempt to make psychiatry a legitimate medical specialty diagnostic criteria were developed. In Canada, psychiatrists use DSM-5 diagnoses not just to organize, but also to justify treatment. In an era where we know about the importance of patients being active partners in their care, we must seek the input of our patients on their agreement or disagreement with diagnostic criteria. In practice, especially in the inpatient system where most people who are admitted are involuntary patients, the healthcare system maintains a culture of clinicians having power over patients. The imbalance of power sustains a system where clinicians, most prominently psychiatrists, are the ultimate decision-maker and nurses become stuck in a murky place of advocating for patients, exercising their own autonomy of holistic and person-centered care, while also acting on psychiatrists orders. The process continues to be a top-down approach despite attempts to embrace and implement collaborative ...