The concept of speaking truth

Speaking Truth Concept

Discuss the concept of speaking truth to power. Are you better prepared to advocate for patients, nurses and nursing after taking this class?

During a time when there is a nationwide shortage of nurses (Glazer, 2009), identifying opportunities to improve their working conditions and status has assumed new importance and relevance and the concept of speaking truth to power can help achieve this outcome. According to Greear (2015), the concept of "speaking truth to power" was coined by the Quakers during the 1950s and has come to mean "taking a stand and mobilizing society around change" (para. 2). An important point made by Greear (2015) is that mere humans are only capable of knowing some of the truth at any given point in their lives but it is essential to act on what truth is known by taking action to effect meaningful change where it is needed. In this regard, Greear emphasizes that, "We must be humble enough to accept that we only know the truth that we know. But the truth that we do know, we must speak it. We must have the courage to say what we see" (para. 3).

When applied to professional nurses, the concept of speaking truth to power can extend to include the need for nurses to serve as advocates for patients and the nursing profession (Paynton, 2009). For example, Glazer (2009) emphasizes that, "By our defining the current shortage of nurses in the U.S. as solely a nursing or nursing faculty problem is to ignore its magnitude. It is indeed a much broader problem" (p. 37). Unfortunately, the current nursing shortage is projected to increase in severity in the future, and practicing nurses today are faced with increasing workloads and levels of responsibility for patient care. These trends are well documented and widely recognized by the nursing profession, but there has been insufficient activism on the part of the nursing profession to counter these trends. In this regard, Paynton (2009) reports that, "Healthcare organizations continue to increase the professional responsibilities of nurses, yet remain slow in recognizing nurses as autonomous professionals" (p. 21).

According to Paynton (2009), power can be defined as "the capacity or potential to influence" and suggests that nurses should exercise "position power" and "personal power" in their professional capacities. Just as many healthcare organizations have been slow to recognize nurses as autonomous professionals, though, many nurses have been denied the opportunity to serve as advocates based on their status. For example, Paynton also notes that, "Too often, the position (formal) power of nurses is understood as being beneath that of healthcare organizations and physicians" (p. 21). This lack of formal power, however, does not prevent nurses from using informal power to effect change. As Paynton concludes, "Although nurses are often perceived as not having significant amounts of formal power, they are able to use their personal (informal) power to implement patient care" (2009, p. 21).