Mel Cortez just doesn’t know when to stop. You’ll recall she’s the one posting my content on LinkedIn, telling everyone that I’m the problem for the toxicity and why nothing improves within the nursing profession. It’s not the greedy administration or the, you know, toxic healthcare administrations, organizations. It’s me. I’m the problem.
So now she’s claiming that she knows me. I don’t know her. I’ve been to Texas twice. That’s where she lives. I no idea who this woman is, if I’ve met her, she clearly didn’t make an impression on me. She doesn’t know me. But she’s out there saying it’s so frustrating cuz I know her and have nothing but wonderful things to say about the woman in this video. And I know she means well. But for all of us who are working really hard to work with organizations, it’s so frustrating. But wait, there’s more. But then another time she claims that she doesn’t know me or doesn’t know me well enough, whatever. But God bless this person down here who said to, you know her or don’t you? She didn’t answer that.
So now my content is being shared on LinkedIn, which I have actually tried to avoid like the plague all along. And you know what? It’s fine if you wanna share my stuff over there. It’s fine.
I personally have made it a point to not post on LinkedIn ever. I am not a fan of LinkedIn. And in the nursing world, it’s disproportionately made up of administration and nursing academia. Well, we all know how toxic administration is and nursing academia. These are just my own opinions. Do with them what you will, but that is a toxic world that I do not like to operate in. Don’t get me wrong. There are so many amazing nurse educators out there, some that I consider friends that are amazing. And there are some amazing academics in the nursing world that have the veritable alphabet soup after their name, who are very good friends of mine that I love and respect. But in general, that is a whole different level of toxic. Like there’s toxic nursing and then there’s toxic nursing academia, and I loathe and to test it and I try to avoid it. And so that’s kind of why I steer clear of LinkedIn.
But now my stuff is being share it all over LinkedIn because Mail Cortez, I don’t know, I can think it’s probably having the opposite effect then she had hoped for. But, so let’s talk about this for a minute for all those out there, cuz you should see the comments on there. There’s a lot that agree with her that think that I’m the problem. The nursing profession would be solved. It would be moving in a upward trajectory towards, you know, sunshine and roses, if not for me. These problems existed before I was even a nurse. And I’ve been a nurse a long time.
Okay? The reason in my opinion, that I have been so successful is because I approach it in a way that no one else ever has. I’ve been operating in this advocacy realm for a long time now. I put my job, my career, my livelihood on the line every single day. I am constantly pushing the limits. I’ve lost jobs because of what I do. I’ve talked about that before and I’m okay with that.
Something has to change. Why is it to all the administration out there and academics out there that thinks that I’m to blame, can you just at least answer this for me? Why is it that every single bedside nurse is screaming, figuratively, from the rooftops, from the mountaintops, how terrible it is, how toxic it is, how terrified they are every day to go to work. And yet over here, so far removed from nursing of today, admin and academics that like to hang out on LinkedIn in your little groups where, you know, stroke each other and pat each other on the back and make each other feel well, feel better about life.
Why you all think that it’s getting better. And if it weren’t for me or people like me, that it would be fine because I’m creating the us versus them mentality. I’m the toxicity in nursing.
Can you answer that? Because there is clearly a vast divide. There is clearly, you know, like an out of touch element, right to the point where it’s embarrassing. Like anyone from the outside looking in can look at it and go, really, when all frontline nurses are saying one thing and everyone removed from it is saying something completely opposite, who’s the problem? You’re so out of touch and you rely on your degrees, your accolades, your published works, your, all these things that you use to make yourselves feel better to, you know, push this narrative. It’s not getting better. What you’re doing is not accomplishing anything. In fact, it’s accomplishing the opposite because nurses are becoming more and more better because of people like you. They don’t want to fight that. They’re leaving jobs and the profession because of people like you.
I don’t know. It’s so frustrating to me. And I deal with these people all the time. Like in real life, I deal with these people and I do my best to navigate it when I have to professionally. But I refuse to do it on my platforms, on social media.
You know, I’m going to continue calling it out. It is toxic. And you are out of touch with reality. You are toxic and you are out of touch with reality. And the vast, overwhelming majority of nurses who are currently working, the ones that count, agree you are out of touch with reality. You are the problem. You are the reason that things are not moving forward. I am simply transparent.
I have the benefit, if you wanna call it that, of a very unique perspective. I say all the time that I worked in the most toxic hospital in the entire country. You cannot tell me otherwise. I was there for like 9 years, a really long time as bedside and management. I have seen things, and that’s just at that one place, not even counting, since then, seen things that would keep you up at night. So I have a unique perspective. You don’t see other, you know, nurse managers, directors, Cnos out there are talking about the things that take place behind the curtain. I talk about all that stuff. I always have from Day 1. That’s why it resonates with people. I’m not the problem.
I, eh, and I hesitate to say this cuz I don’t wanna like shoot my own horn, so to speak, but I have courage. I have always had an abundance of courage. And so I bring that to my platforms. I use my car. I am not afraid. Fire me, retaliate against me, I will fight back. And sometimes I’m gonna lose. I have, sometimes I win, though, and that’s pretty cool.
I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing. It clearly resonates with the 5000000+ nurses in this country and other countries. I’m transparent. I’m gonna tell you what’s really going on at great personal risk in hopes that it changes, in hopes that this dumpster fire of a profession, because, yes, I’m gonna say that again, it is currently a dumpster fire and has been for a while.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t love being a nurse. It’s broken. And at this point, I don’t know that it can be fixed short of toppling it all to the ground and rebuilding it from the ground up, it is that far gone. And all of you out there shoving smoke up our ass about the toxic positivity, you’re the problem. My negativity isn’t the toxicity. It’s your positive toxicity. This toxic positivity that you’re just spoon feeding us constantly.