Telling it like it is: F-Word is unveiled

On April 16 at the end of the second day of a busy leadership meeting in Toronto, ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss officially launched F-Word, the next generation of ONA storytelling, to resounding applause and fierce enthusiasm from the hundreds of members in attendance.

This shift from a printed publication to a digital magazine is a monumental change in how we tell our own stories about our lived experiences. More than a change in format, F-Word is an invitation to tell it like it is in our own words, without sugar coating.

F-Word creates space for nurses and health-care professionals to hear from each other. Its direct, provocative, and deeply informed by ONA’s strategic plan and badass brand. It’s designed to empower members to tell the brutal truth, fight injustice, and take back our narrative and the power that comes with that.

This is why the F-Word team will actively encourage grassroots members to submit their stories, ideas and rants.

Controlled no more

“As nurses and health-care professionals, we’re controlled at every turn,” ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss explained in her presentation.

“They even control the language we use or the language about us. They say there’s a shortage of ‘beds,’ when they mean us. They tell us to apologize to patients for wait times because we’re ‘running lean,’ instead of short-staffed. They brainwash us into thinking that they can do whatever they like to us because it’s a ‘calling.’

“Well, we’ve got our own words. You know the ones. Some of them make us laugh. Some of them make us cry. Some of them feel really good to scream out loud when you’ve worked a double but still feel invisible.”

One of the most important messages of ONA’s renewed brand, launched in November 2023, is the need to fight. That f-word sparked many more powerfully descriptive f-words – feisty, fiery, fierce, formidable…the list goes on.

That is how the gritty, brash and, yes, somewhat cheeky name of our digital magazine was born. It’s bold and badass, but then again, so are ONA members. It’s inspired by exactly that – how we speak to each other in own own spaces, not when our tone is being policed and we’re being controlled by our bosses.

F-Word is the break room, not the boardroom. It’s our license to use our own words.

“I use f-words when it feels like my voice doesn’t matter,” Ariss added. “I’ve had to learn that despite how they make me feel, my voice does matter. YOUR voice matters. It matters to me. It’s important, essential. My only job as President is to make sure you find your voice and have the facility to use it.”

Outlet for expression

And that’s where F-Word comes in. Putting members squarely where we belong – front and centre. F-Word is an outlet for expression and connection, by sharing the stories we don’t tell anywhere else.

They can be stories of courage in impossible situations, stories of harsh conditions, or even abusive treatment and inequality. But they can also be stories of hope where we celebrate and lift one another up, where we inspire and spark a fire in others. Because if something is happening to one of us, it’s most likely happening to many of us – and there is great power in sharing. It can help us overcome the isolation we feel.

For anyone worried about sharing something with the F-Word team, they’ll always connect with you before posting any story. They’ll put your safety first and remove names and identifying details, if necessary.

“In our increasingly fragmented media landscape, including shifting social media policies and cuts to traditional news, especially in local communities, creating a platform that we run to tell our stories is important,” noted ONA CEO Andrea Kay. “It gives us a dedicated space to share what we need to, regardless of the uncertainties impacting broader media – and will be an incredible asset moving forward.”

“Storytelling turns lived experience into action,” added Ariss. “[Stories] fuel us. They fuse us together. They get us ready for the fight.

“I’m honoured to be trusted with your secrets, but it can’t just be me hearing your stories. They are too important to keep locked away, but you’ve been told to do just that. Told when you can speak, what you can say. The volume you’re allowed to use. And if your subject matter is difficult, they tell you those aren’t stories. Not real ones anyway. They’re complaints, gripes, annoyances, as if you don’t have the right to use your own brain and heart to think your thoughts and feel your feels about your life and the lives of those around you.

“The stories you’ve shared with me aren’t just war stories from the past, or complaints about the present. Your stories are how you communicate your lived experience. And that lived experience is your platform. It’s your identity. And I want you to own it.”

Your f-words

Ariss also wanted to hear directly from the members present at the launch. Following a brief demonstration of F-Word on the large screens at the front and back of the meeting room, Ariss walked around the tables asking members to share their f-word and what it means to them. And they were only too willing to do so.

“Feminism-rage,” said one, “because we’re sick and tired, and it’s time to stop apologizing and take up some damn space.”

“Forward,” stated another, “because we’re moving forward and not backwards.” 

Still another added, “face, because ONA is going to be in your face whether you like it or not!”

Forge, forgotten, fire, feisty, FAFO, family,  friend/friendship, fierce, fear, fun, freedom, fair, fortunate, fabulous, flame, forever, forewarned, finally, fasten your seat belt.

So many f-words we hadn’t even thought of.

And that’s the whole point. F-Word is whatever we want it to be, whatever we make it. And so let’s embrace our new digital magazine, get to know it, and then speak our truth.    

“We’re going to say what we want,” concluded Ariss. “We’re going to be loud. We’re going to be proud. We’ve kept our stories in for long enough. Our brutal truth is the only truth. And if you ever again feel silenced, like you can’t open your mouth when you have something to say, when they make you feel crazy for doing what is just and right, when you just want to scream, know this: You’re not crazy. You’re part of 68,000 people who know the truth. And that makes you newsworthy. F-Word worthy.

“Your lived experience is this union because you are this union. Share your stories. Get involved. Make F-Word your own.”