Excepted from Off the Charts, May 31, 2017 AJN Facebook Readers on Influences, Public Attitudes to Nursing, Practices of Yesterday by Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC What do you remember from early in your career that would never be seen or done today? We “nurses of a certain age” remember!—and we’re amazed at how…… Continue reading Nurses of a Certain Age
Category: Nursing Stories
WHY DO WE WRITE?
Originally posted on Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted:
I attended the book signing this past August. Farther Along, written by my friend and mentor, Carol Henderson, which told the stories of thirteen mothers (she is one of them), a bakers dozen as Carol points out, who had lost children at various ages. I was prepared…
Don’t Question the Doctor Part 2
I posted last week about my friend Lois’ run in with a nasty doctor soon after she graduated nursing school in the 60s. Here is my story about working with a difficult physician that took place in the mid 80s. The medical director, Doctor X, sat me down in her office on my first day…… Continue reading Don’t Question the Doctor Part 2
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
Dad and the Bride Doll
In memory of my father’s death 50 years ago.
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
Happy Lasagna Day
My husband and I are spending Thanksgiving alone—by choice. We had been invited out but graciously declined. After having three sets of houseguests in six weeks, we are happy to be alone. By the way, the house has never been cleaner. And we broke from the traditional Thanksgiving dinner—we…… Continue reading Happy Lasagna Day
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.”
The Compliment
Two weeks ago I flew to Sioux Falls to visit my good friend, Lois, in her new home. She and her husband left a Chicago condo off Michigan Avenue facing the lake to settle in a small town with less excitement than a big city. That weekend we attended the South Dakota Annual Festival…… Continue reading The Compliment
Unsolved Mystery?
Originally posted on Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted:
This happened long ago. I worked for a hospital-based home care program. We, nurse practitioners, received referrals from physicians who had exhausted all options to prolong the patients’ life. We visited the patient in his home and helped the family care for him until death. Traditional hospice…
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 