Read on Twitter
When I was a Planned Parenthood nurse, a Christian radio station rented out the commercial space next door and would broadcast when we arrived and left work, our license plate numbers, what we were wearing, and our names if they knew them. https://twitter.com/zaidjilani/status/1346322197439279104
We also had to shut down early twice in the span of a month because a protester cut our power, and another left a suspicious package at our door with a message insinuating it was a bomb. (it wasn’t but it made us shut our doors for most of a day)
oh dear this blew up a little overnight. i am currently afraid to read the replies but maybe when i am braver later in the day, lol. 
PP was my first job out of nursing school. I had offers from every job I applied for, all of which paid more than PP. But I knew it’s where I wanted to be. And I’m so grateful I chose to, because I learned things there that I’ve carried with me in every position since.
I learned how to advocate for *every* patient compassionately & without judgment, that being a good nurse goes far beyond clinical knowledge, how to confront my own privilege & biases regularly, and that if you’re on the side of intersectionality, you’re always in the right.
The job I had after PP was working on an adolescent psychiatric ward in a *very* conservative rural area. I learned how to be an advocate for them & facilitate a supportive environment as they navigated struggles with gender and sexual identity.
And I learned to hold my staff accountable to their own privilege and bias, and made damn sure that at least on MY 12hr shift, our kids knew that it was safe to be themselves, ask questions, and talk openly about their trauma, experiences, and uncertainties.
Nursing school didn’t teach me about STD treatments. Or about abortion and contraceptive methods.
It didn’t teach me how to tell a 14yr old girl she was pregnant, and help her understand ALL of her options without bias or favor for any of them.
It didn’t teach me how to tell a 14yr old girl she was pregnant, and help her understand ALL of her options without bias or favor for any of them.
Nursing school didn’t teach me how to emotionally support a refugee mother as she struggled with her decision to terminate a pregnancy because her husband had just been deported, and she was now raising their 4 children alone, not knowing if they’d ever see their father again.
When I told my nursing school advisor how excited I was to work for Planned Parenthood, she responded:
“Well I guess that’s one way to go if you don’t care about money.”
“Well I guess that’s one way to go if you don’t care about money.”
But one of my instructors solidified my choice. When I spoke candidly w/ her about my desire to take a non-traditional career path in nursing, she said:
“Every RN has the same clinical skills, but not every RN has the desire to care for patients who the world has cast aside.”
“Every RN has the same clinical skills, but not every RN has the desire to care for patients who the world has cast aside.”
And I’ve been following that weird non-traditional path ever since... working with nonprofits, a psychiatric hospital, community mental health orgs, and now public health. And I’m sure glad I did. 
I’m sorry I still haven’t read the comments to this (but I will) but just dropping back in to say that if you like informative TikToks feel free to find me over there. Or on Instagram where I do more personal bloggy-type posts about my experiences in life and healthcare.
