“Reducing health inequities is…an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.”This was the conclusion of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health in its 2008 report. The burden of illness and premature mortality in First Nation communities characterized by poverty, crowded housing and lack of basic sanitation infrastructure is a striking example of health inequities and social injustice in Canada. However, health inequities — disparities in health outcomes among different population groups that are systematically associated with underlying social disadvantage or marginalization — occur in every Canadian community.

Not long ago, the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia served notice that it plans to leave CNA and focus exclusively on regulatory issues. Soon after, five RN regulatory bodies (from Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C.) announced that they are in the process of forming a new and separate national regulatory body. CRNBC believes that engaging in public health advocacy work is outside its mandate. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth.

In late January, the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA) launched Expert Caring Makes a Difference. This public awareness campaign, which employed television, print and Internet advertising, focused on presenting research evidence about the positive impact of RN care on patient outcomes and on engaging Albertans through www.expertcaring.ca.

Our respite to view the Olympics on TV is over, and the federal government has announced that it plans to freeze increases to foreign-aid spending next year — with projected “savings” of $4.4 billion by 2015. Meanwhile, the human suffering in Haiti continues; and its people await the next disaster as the rainy season approaches to wash away the tent cities housing survivors. Once the emergency hospitals have packed up and sailed away — perhaps to Chile or yet another disaster area — what can Canadian nurses do at the individual, group, association and global levels to address the longer term needs for healing and reconstruction?

Nurses working in community health formed a national professional association more than two decades ago. In the past six years, this group, now known as Community Health Nurses of Canada (CHNC), has established national professional standards and competencies, received specialty designation for certification through CNA, and assisted in the development of national clinical placement guidelines for undergraduate community health nursing education. Despite this tremendous progress, no one has yet been able to come up with a clear, consistent definition of community health nurse.