Category: Nursing Stories

 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 At the time I was acutely aware how outdated my nursing skills were and realized that I wouldn’t even be safe to flip on a light switch.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

Unconventional Nursing

This Post from 2012–written by my fellow nursing classmate, Ruth Donoghue–describes an episode occurring in the early ’90s. Early ‘90’s December NAKED IN THE DELIVERY ROOM Nursery in a Catholic hospital where 5,000 babies pass through in a year The call comes via unit secretary A nurse is requested as soon as possible to pick…… Continue reading Unconventional Nursing

My Mother’s Boyfriend

Happy Mother’s Day. My mother died the day before Mother’s Day sixteen years ago. Each year at this time my memories of Mom revolve around both her life and death. Her last few years weren’t what I would have predicted. When Ernie and I moved from the Midwest to Maryland in 1993, Mom came with…… Continue reading My Mother’s Boyfriend

Nurses’ Books Need More Media Attention

In my last post, I told you about a couple of books I discovered—short story collections written by nurses. Lynn Rosack wrote a comment on my last post reminding me that Echo Heron, whose book I covered, Emergency 24/7: Nurses of the Emergency Room (2015) had written other nursing books. One of them, Intensive Care:…… Continue reading Nurses’ Books Need More Media Attention

Nursing Stories by the Hundreds!

Now that my book has been reworked and has a new title—Playing Sheriff: A Nurse Practitioner’s Story—I am ready to get it in print. In order to do this, I’ve been looking for books about nursing, and preferably written by a nurse. to see how these reached publication. First of all, I found out was…… Continue reading Nursing Stories by the Hundreds!

Humor Noir/Black Humor

While I was looking for something to read to my writing group, I came across this story. It brings back memories of how green I was when I started nursing school.   Right before Patsy’s turn to share her thoughts with the group, she smiled coyly at me. Oh no! She wasn’t going to tell…… Continue reading Humor Noir/Black Humor

Luther

I received my memoir manuscript from my editor this past week. Thankfully, she hadn’t any issues with structure. (I’m not counting the many grammatical errors she found that I thought I had addressed but still missed). Since the last version of my book, I have changed the title, dropped five chapters, deepened some others, and…… Continue reading Luther

The Things I Treasure

Tomorrow we are having the rooms on the second floor of our new townhouse painted. Before we moved furniture to the center of the rooms, I stored in a large cardboard box, out of harms way, the treasures I kept on the shelves of my desk. Among the various memorabilia I packed away were the…… Continue reading The Things I Treasure

Nursing Stories in the Top 100 Best Nursing Blogs

First, I am excited that there are 100 best nursing blogs. Wow. Great job nurses! And I am pleased that my blog, Nursing Stories, has been included in this group. And, yes, I am boasting. Nursing Stories Nursing Stories is a heartfelt blog about one woman’s experiences in nursing. Marianna Crane, the blogger, has been…… Continue reading Nursing Stories in the Top 100 Best Nursing Blogs

Make My Mother Proud

I’ve mentioned that I’m rewriting the manuscript that I thought I had completed. Besides adding more about gerontology, I am digging deeper into the dichotomy between my bent for caring for older persons and my difficulty getting along with my own aging mother. Living with Mom had never been easy. Being an only child of…… Continue reading Make My Mother Proud