Last week I reblogged Josephine Ensign’s Radical Hat-Burning Nurses Unite! because I was moved watching the Politics of Caring. The video, released in 1977, showed in Ensign’s words, “how little things have changed.” Nurses then were striking and joining unions in order to have “control over their jobs” and to promote safe and good nursing…… Continue reading WHY CAN’T NURSES RUN THE SHOW?
Category: Health Care Services
GETTING ON THE BUS Part 2 of 2
During the first week, after I wrestled with the monitor to find a comfortable position in bed, I settled into sleep. My heart, booming loudly in my ears, jarred me awake. I pressed the record button and the monitor gave off a high-pitched sound and began taping. As instructed, I lay still. When the whining…… Continue reading GETTING ON THE BUS Part 2 of 2
WHEN CANCER IS NOT CANCER
I was standing in front of the light boxes hanging on the wall in the breast surgeon’s office staring at the mammogram films of my left breast. The surgeon pointed to lesions that resembled a galaxy of twinkling stars in my milk ducts. The Milky Way. A bad joke. “You’ll need a biopsy,” she said.…… Continue reading WHEN CANCER IS NOT CANCER
COMPETITION
An article in my local newspaper on March 10th, More Training, Bigger Roles for N.C. Nurse Practitioners, got me so fired up that I dashed off a response before the day was over. I knew as I composed my letter-to-the-editor chiding the North Carolina Medical Society for ignoring research that proves nurse practitioners’ practice is…… Continue reading COMPETITION
AGING IN PLACE OR WAITING TO DIE?
Aging in place wasn’t in vogue when I first became a gerontological nurse practitioner in the early ‘80s. And my patients certainly didn’t know they were aging in place. Especially Helen. She called it waiting to die. The Senior Clinic I worked in had just relocated from a one-bedroom apartment on the 10th floor to…… Continue reading AGING IN PLACE OR WAITING TO DIE?
THE TIME IS RIGHT
A friend deliberated whether she should visit her father for his 95th birthday. She was swamped with commitments. Since he was unaware of his birthday as well of his surroundings and didn’t even recognize his three daughters, there was no urgency to travel to another state. However, she cleared her schedule and made the trip,…… Continue reading THE TIME IS RIGHT
I WAS THE ONLY ONE
I can’t believe I was the only one. In my last post I referenced The Truth About Nursing blog in which we are asked to write to two journalists who did not mention nurses in their article about Hillary Clinton’s hospitalization. The story read as if doctors were the only health professionals caring for her.…… Continue reading I WAS THE ONLY ONE
SILENT NO MORE
When will nurses cease to be invisible? The web site The Truth About Nursing discusses an article about Hillary Clinton’s hospitalization in which the author did not make one reference to nursing (MatthewLee, “Hillary Clinton hospitalized with blood clot,” Bloomberg Businessweek, December 31, 2012 *). The Truth About Nursing suggests if Clinton needed to be…… Continue reading SILENT NO MORE
NOT SURPRISING NURSES ARE THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSIONALS
NURSES ARE THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSIONALS This is from the Medscape Medical News Nurses Remain Nation’s Most Trusted Professionals Jenni Laidman Dec 06, 2012 Authors & Disclosures Medical professionals are among the most trusted people in the United States, a new Gallup survey shows, with 85% of survey respondents ranking nurses highest for honesty and ethics, followed by…… Continue reading NOT SURPRISING NURSES ARE THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSIONALS
GRIEF
A close friend of mine just called wanting to talk about a medication her doctor advised her to take—an antidepressant. Her adult son died suddenly of a massive heart attack this past summer. An uncle died last week, on the same day a memorial service was held for her son. She just wanted some validation…… Continue reading GRIEF
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 