Category: Nursing Stories

INVISIBLE Part 2 of 3

“When did you urinate last?” Ms. O looked at me blankly. “I’m going to press over your bladder,” I said. I reached under the hospital gown and pushed over her pubic area. My fingers felt a soft swelling. Ms. O winced. “I think you’d feel better if I passed a tube into your bladder and…… Continue reading INVISIBLE Part 2 of 3

INVISIBLE Part 1 of 3

“Invisible,” by Marianna Crane, originally appeared in the Examined Life Journal.     The cardinal rule of the game is that open disagreement between the players must be avoided at all costs. Thus, the nurse must communicate her recommendations (to the physician) without appearing to be making a recommendation statement. – – – The greater…… Continue reading INVISIBLE Part 1 of 3

THERE ARE SOME PATIENTS WE NEVER FORGET

01/29/2012 BY MARIANNA CRANE When you have been a nurse as long as I have there are patients who take residence in your memories and resurface frequently. They could almost be family except they have a short history in your life. What they were like before or after you knew them usually remains a mystery.…… Continue reading THERE ARE SOME PATIENTS WE NEVER FORGET

WHAT JOURNALING WILL DO

It’s a coincidence that I wrote the last entry in my journal on February 28 at the same time I finished my book. Well, my book is not finished-finished but it’s getting its final editing—by a professional content editor—as I compose this post. I have been using a 5-subject wide-rule notebook every morning to put…… Continue reading WHAT JOURNALING WILL DO

FMM 1 17 14 Self-Efficacy

“Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.”~ Viktor E. Frankl Studies show that you can predict a person’s ability to change a habit by the degree to which they believe in their ability to change.  Self-efficacy is the term given to that belief…

WHY CAN’T NURSES RUN THE SHOW?

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?

OCEAN, ASHES AND THE N.C. WRITER’S FALL CONFERENCE

The third weekend in November I attended the North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall Conference with my long-time writing buddy, Marilyn. She brought along her husband, Pete, in a double Ziploc bag. On Friday, after check-in, we stood out on the deck of our room at the Holiday Inn Resort at Wrightsville Beach taking in the…… Continue reading OCEAN, ASHES AND THE N.C. WRITER’S FALL CONFERENCE

WHAT DOES AGE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

I made an ageist comment. It didn’t seem ageist at the time. I was sitting in the second row of a packed room at Flyleaf Bookstore in Chapel Hill as Pat Schneider finished reading from her new book, How The Light Gets In. I came to hear Pat for two reasons. One, I wanted to…… Continue reading WHAT DOES AGE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

WRITING RETREAT

“Something looks back from the trees,/and knows me for who I am.” — American poet, Jane Hirshfield.  I spent five days at Wildacres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina at a writers’ retreat: The Powerful Narrative lead by Carol and Bill Henderson this past September. My good friend, Lois Roelofs, flew in from Chicago to join me. Without phones,…… Continue reading WRITING RETREAT