What Do You Stand For?

Some lines are more memorable than others. In the Broadway musical Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton challenges Aaron Burr with this statement: “If you stand for nothin’, Burr, what will you fall for?” 

I have stolen that line when teaching nurses about bullying and incivility in our workplaces. Unfortunately, this is a topic that we still need to talk about. It is a topic that also resonated with more than 500 nurses attending the ONS 43rd Annual Congress in Washington, DC, earlier in 2018. Tracy Gosselin, PhD, RN, AOCN^®, NEA-BC, and Anne Ireland, MSN, RN, AOCN^®, CENP, presented the session “Professional Incivility: A Workplace Cancer in Need of a Cure”to a jam-packed audience. The Q&A and follow-up the next day at the ONS booth had standing room only.