This is my 262nd Blog post. It’s a significant number for me. I spent the first twenty years of my life in a two-bedroom apartment in a three-story brick building in Jersey City, New Jersey: 262 Summit Avenue. Most of the buildings on the block were three stories with an apartment on each floor. I…… Continue reading It Takes a Village or a City Block
Author: Marianna Crane
After a long career in nursing--I was one of the first certified gerontological nurse practitioners--I am now a writer. My writings center around patients I have had over the years that continue to haunt my memory unless I record their stories. In addition, I write about growing older, confronting ageism, creativity and food.
My memoir, "Stories from the Tenth Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner Remembers" is available where ever books are sold.
THE WEIRDEST HOME VISIT
Originally posted on Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted:
When I worked in the home care program at a VA hospital in Illinois, medical students sometimes came along with us nurse practitioners while we made our visits. I enjoyed showing them the reality of delivering care in the patient’s home—where we were guests—the subtle line between…
Can nurses really speak out too much?
This article caught my attention from the Nursing Times (a monthly magazine for the nurses of the United Kingdom). I had to do some homework to learn about The Queen’s Nursing Institute and its function. Healthcare policy is a key activity for The Queen’s Nursing Institute. The QNI works to influence decision makers across England,…… Continue reading Can nurses really speak out too much?
Nurses Give Their Expert Advice on Understanding the Broken Health Care System
I have been on the lecture circuit. My topic is Empowering the Patient: How to Navigate the Health Care System. Two presentations down and two to go with another in the negotiating stage. I’m fine-tuning the presentation based on the feedback I have received from my audience each time I give the talk. Sana Goldberg’s…… Continue reading Nurses Give Their Expert Advice on Understanding the Broken Health Care System
A Nurse Tells it Like it Is
A nurse has called attention to our dysfunctional health care system in the OP-ED section of the New York Times. (Our Jury-Rigged Health Care System by Teresa Brown, New York Times, September 6, 2019) Brown has hit a nerve as evidenced by the 969 comments to date supporting her stance. Her article discusses how nurses (and…… Continue reading A Nurse Tells it Like it Is
How Mindfulness Can Be an Act of Self-Care for Nurses
Originally posted on Nightingale:
Nurse Burnout Won’t go Away Until the Industry Changes. But in the Meantime, Mindfulness can Help Nurses Prioritize Their Well-Being. ? This past November I attended a workshop on nurse burnout at the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin. Clinical nurses, administrators, and researchers came together for three days to…
The National Institutes of Health Disappoints
When I worked at the National Institutes of Health, a colleague and I wrote an article: The Role of Nurse Practitioners Expands at NIH for the NIH Record newsletter in May of 2000 about the increase of Nurse Practitioners at the Institute. My short time there was exciting, especially as I witnessed NP positions increase…… Continue reading The National Institutes of Health Disappoints
Mindfulness: Julia Sarazine
I met Julia Sarazine this past June when I spoke to Rush University nurses in Chicago about my book: Stories from the Tenth-Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner Remembers. We agreed on the need for nurses to tell their stories. When I discovered Julia’s background in teaching mindfulness techniques to nurses in order to reduce symptoms…… Continue reading Mindfulness: Julia Sarazine
Change of Pace: Panzanella
The high temperatures that we have in Raleigh keep me indoors more that I would like. The thermometer on my kitchen counter tells me it’s 99 degrees outside as I write this at 4 pm. Our home is comfortably cool so I could just knuckle down and write my weekly post that is due tomorrow.…… Continue reading Change of Pace: Panzanella
Home Visits Can Be Fraught with Danger
One time, long ago, at a nursing conference, I sat fixated as a fellow nurse told a story about the time she rang the doorbell at her patient’s house, and he didn’t answer. It was later that she found out he had been murdered. And in hearing more detail, she discovered that the murderer…… Continue reading Home Visits Can Be Fraught with Danger
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 