1/I saw some tweets first thing this morning that really questioned & judged #DawnWooten for working at an ICE detention center, so let's start with nursing. She is currently a licensed practical nurse (LPN) not a registered nurse. Not a judgment, statement of fact. https://twitter.com/mclemoremr/status/1306245928852975616

2/White nurses teamed up with physicians when they were attempting to professionalize obstetrics and discredited the grand midwives. That's an entire other thread that @iamn0tthe1 can link here if you want to read abt that. It provides a good exemplar for RN/LVN/LPN situation

3/As an aside, any nursing student or faculty should be assigning #ClarissaThreat book for deeper insights into Black & queer nurses & our unique contributions specific to the public health and army nurse corps.

4/Back to the professionalization of nursing. There has always been a push to standardize nursing education & to provide licensure to individuals who use the term nurse. You can read about distinctions among and between RNs & LVNs/LPNs here: http://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/about/nln-vision-series-%28position-statements%29/nlnvision_7.pdf

5/"The diversity of practical/vocational nurses is significant, especially compared to their RN colleagues. Currently, approximately one-quarter (23.6 percent) of the LPN/LVN workforce is African American as compared to 9.9 percent of the RN workforce (HRSA, 2013)."

6/"The number of Hispanic/Latino nurses in the LPN/LVN workforce is almost double that of the RN workforce
(7.5 percent vs. 4.8 percent)." There are many factors at play as to why a Black LPN would be working at an ICE detention facility during a pandemic. More in a few mins...

7/So there have been multiple discussions about nursing education and for folx who don't know there remain many paths: most hospital based programs have been phased out, community college programs, BSN, MSN, DNP and PhD programs exist.

8/Laying out this history matters because if you are asking why a Black LVN/LPN is working in a carceral setting or long term care facilities that are surging COVID-19 hotspots, blame the structural factors that relegate them to those settings and not amplifying their unique role

END/There are ton of ways to think about our current situation, but to judge a whistleblower for trying to make a living during a pandemic when structural racism limits her options for jobs needs to be rethought & we all need to have a different conversation about what's possible