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
Category: Telling Stories
Excerpts From My Book
My book will be published on November 6, 2018 by She Writes Press. I have changed the title over the course of writing the book so many times that I can’t give you a count. The latest one, and I do hope the final one, is Stories from the Tenth-Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner…… Continue reading Excerpts From My Book
No Edit Too Mundane
This is the week we spend our annual family vacation at the beach. While I have enjoyed the ocean and sand, I took some time to complete an assignment. One of my stories had been accepted by Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, a digital journal. It could be published as soon as this…… Continue reading No Edit Too Mundane
Leaving Our Legacy
I have been thinking for a long time about the fact that we older nurses are dying off. We will take with us our memories of nursing history. I have always loved to hear from other seasoned nurses about how they size up their nursing careers as they look back. What was important at the…… Continue reading Leaving Our Legacy
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
Nurses of a Certain Age
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
My Book Comes to Life
This past weekend I traveled to Chicago to attend the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the clinic where I worked 30 years ago. The clinic sets the stage for my memoir: Playing Sheriff: A Nurse Practitioner’s Story. The formal function on Friday had 500 in attendance but it was to the intimate and informal…… Continue reading My Book Comes to Life
More on Nurses Week
I am reblogging this post from Lippincott Solutions. My non-nursing followers can read about the history of Nurses Week and the writers among us will be happy to see that Lippincott is asking for “Inspired Nursing Stories” for their annual writing contest. CELEBRATE NATIONAL NURSES WEEK 2017 Tuesday, May 2, 2017 Are you ready for…… Continue reading More on Nurses Week
Netflix Show Gets Aging Right
I am thrilled that the third season of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie is finally here. As one of the first gerontological nurse practitioners to be certified by the ANA back in the 60s and now a 70-something woman, I am depressed that the very same stereotyping and dismissal of the aged I first encountered is…… Continue reading Netflix Show Gets Aging Right
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
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 