The Nurse Philanthropist: Where Care and Cause Meet

Abstract

A transcultural clinical nurse specialist narrates how nursing has provided ways to exercise her passion for the clinical intellect as it intersects with the compassion of the heart. She encourages nurses to become social justice entrepreneurs, or what she terms Nurse Philanthropists, devoting time, talent, and energy to social justice issues as activists, advocates, and ambassadors. Florence Nightingale was the first Nurse Philanthropist, using wealth she inherited to establish St. Thomas Hospital in London. However, nurses do not have to be wealthy in order to enter the world of philanthropy. Inspired by the work of Madeleine Leininger, the author has established several non-profits that have grown into Zaman International, an organization with more than 4000 volunteers, 220 partner organizations, a baby cemetery, a fresh food program that delivers hot meals to homes, well and water projects in several countries, a vocational training and literacy program, and a one-stop center providing food, clothing, and essential needs for female-headed households living on less than $12,000 a year, helping negotiate a better future for them and re-pattern the cycle of intergenerational poverty.