Barbara Jonas, 84, collector of art and patron of nursing, died on October 23, in Manhattan. I had never heard of her. But the heading of her obituary in the New York Times on November 9th grabbed my attention. She was a patron of nursing along with her husband, Donald Jonas. In 2016, the couple sold off…… Continue reading Patron of Nursing
Category: Health Care Services
The Perks of Serving on the Board
I have served on the Family Patient Advisory Council at my local hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina since it’s inception a little over two years ago. I became the first Chair and now I am the Senior Chair. This last week, the hospital funded my travel to Chicago to attend the Patient Experience Conference…… Continue reading The Perks of Serving on the Board
Have you ever considered being on a Board?
Originally posted on NurseManifest:
Here at the NurseManifest project, we have tended to emphasize grass roots, “on the street” kinds of activism to bring our deepest nursing values into everyday experience. But manifesting nursing values needs to happen everywhere, and one of the spheres where this is vitally important is in the Board Rooms, large…
A Broken Man Who is Hard to Forget
Richey rolled himself in a manual wheelchair into the exam room of the spinal cord clinic for the first time on a warm spring day in April. He managed to lift his quivering right arm to shake my hand. I was the new nurse practitioner in charge of his care. He had some ability to…… Continue reading A Broken Man Who is Hard to Forget
Nurses Save Lives
What a pleasant surprise to read that nurses save lives (italics mine) in a news article yesterday, September 21. Unfortunately, the story was not a happy one. The Raleigh, NC News & Observer detailed the memorial service for the crew of a Duke Life Flight Air Ambulance that crashed on September 8 killing…… Continue reading Nurses Save Lives
Getting on the Bus
This post appeared in two parts on September 8 & 20, 2013. The first night in a hotel room in Estoril, Portugal, my heart, flipping about in my chest, jolted me awake. Thump. Thump. Thump. Silence. Then a rush of horses’ hooves clopped on my ribs. Trying to ignore my heart’s gymnastics, I tried…… Continue reading Getting on the Bus
Don’t Question the Doctor
My friend Lois and I were talking on the phone the other day. We both graduated from diploma nursing schools in the early 60s. It was a time when the nurse was considered the “handmaiden” of the physician. We played the Doctor-Nurse Game* and even stood up when a doctor entered a room. Feeling powerless…… Continue reading Don’t Question the Doctor
Cardiac Advances Versus Patient Benefit: A Moral Dilemma
My story, Closing the Door, recently published in Stories That Need to be Told: A Tulip Tree Anthology, tells of the emergence some fifty years ago of cardiac catheterization, artificial heart valves and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how I, as a young nurse, had to make sense of the advancement of technology versus patient benefit. This…… Continue reading Cardiac Advances Versus Patient Benefit: A Moral Dilemma
The Gray Area of Nursing: Being Uncertain of One’s “Moral Role.”
Here’s a great example how one nurse saved a patient’s life. Speaking Up to Save a Life by Diane Szulecki, Associate Editor American Journal of Nursing October 2016 – Volume 116 – Issue 10 – p 68–69 Abstract A nurse’s advocacy alters the path of a patient with locked-in syndrome. On a…… Continue reading The Gray Area of Nursing: Being Uncertain of One’s “Moral Role.”
I Am Grateful to the Nurses
In 2013 I toured the new intensive care units back at the hospital where I volunteer. At the time I was acutely aware how outdated my nursing skills were and realized that I wouldn’t even be safe to flip on a light switch. The state-of-the-art machines were daunting. I never thought that three years later…… Continue reading I Am Grateful to the Nurses
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 