School Nursing

The Relentless School Nurse: Facing my White Fragility

Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
 
The Radical Nurses Collective recently joined forces with Dr. Jason Magabo Perez of Cal State San Marcos to co-create a storytelling circle of nurse activists. This was the charge:
 
We want to provide an outlet for nurses to share their stories in a time of national reckoning by asking our story tellers to consider:
  • How has being a nurse informed your understanding of what’s going on currently?
  • How do you see your professional role interacting with the current challenges that we’re experiencing in the country?
  • What is your role as a nurse in these times? 
I knew that given this chance, I was going to step into my story of how I came face to face with my implicit bias and White Fragility. My story is dedicated to the nurse on Twitter who called me “Columbus”. I have done work since that day…and am still learning. One day, I hope to meet the nurse in real life and thank her, she was 100% right. 
 
 
You can hear my story along with 4 other incredible nurses who shared their truth. Thank you, Vanessa and Jess, of the Radical Nurse Collective for inviting me. I have a grateful heart.
 
 

The Radical Nurses Collective and California State University, San Marcos, Ethnic Studies Program, hosted a nursing solidarity story circle on 6/11/2020. We appreciate our storytellers: Dr. Anna Valdez, Walden University, Dr. Shena Gazaway, Augusta University, Patrick McMurray of PatMacRN, Robin Cogan of the Relentless School Nurse, and Jerry Soucy of the Death Nurse, for their time and willingness to share part of themselves with us, the listeners. We recognize storytelling as both art and activism.
 

Published by Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN

Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN, is a Nationally Certified School Nurse (NCSN), currently in her 22nd year as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. Robin is the Director for New Jersey to the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) Board. She is proud to be a Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Fellow and past Program Mentor. Robin is the honored recipient of multiple awards for her work in school nursing and population health. These awards include, 2019 and 2020 National Association of School Nurses President’s Award, 2018 NCSN School Nurse of the Year, 2017 Johnson & Johnson School Nurse of the Year, and the New Jersey Department of Health 2017 Population Health Hero Award. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing, where she teaches the next generation of school nurses. She was presented the 2018 Rutgers University – Camden Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award for Part-time Faculty. Robin writes a weekly blog called The Relentless School Nurse. She also writes a monthly column in My American Nurse, the official journal of the American Nurses Association. Robin’s work is included as a case study in The Future of Nursing Report 2020-2030. You can follow Robin on Twitter at @RobinCogan.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.