Posts

  • DEMISE OF THE PHYSICAL

    DEMISE OF THE PHYSICAL

    Back in the early ‘80s when I ran a not-for-profit clinic on the west side of Chicago for older people before annual physicals were considered “nonspecific” or “inefficient” or “potentially harmful” [“Let’s (Not) Get Physicals” (Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times, June 3, 2012)] I did a complete head to toe exam on each patient who registered, including vaginal… Read more

  • WET YOUR LIPS

    WET YOUR LIPS

    Linda Jay, Michele Murdock and I are all writers. We are all of a certain age. And we all want to have a professional photo for our future book jackets. Enter Layne Sizemore, an accomplished photographer with patience, humor and appreciation of the older woman. Linda’s post tells the story of the photo shoot session and… Read more

  • NURSE-BULL

    NURSE-BULL

    During a recent trip to France, our tour group went to Camargue in the Provence region and visited a “manade,” which is a Provencal ranch that raises white horses and bulls for the Bull Games. Unlike the bullfights of Spain, the bull doesn’t get killed. Loaded in a large wooden wagon pulled by a tractor… Read more

  • NURSE PRACTITIONER VERSUS PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT

    NURSE PRACTITIONER VERSUS PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT

    Last week in a restaurant in Lyon, France, my tablemate turned toward me and asked, “What’s the difference between a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant.” My husband and I were on a tour. Our traveling buddies consisted of older folks like ourselves. The woman knew I was a retired NP and had told me… Read more

  • 24-Hour Woman

    24-Hour Woman

    “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” —Gabriel Garcia Marquez I remember Sadie Rooney handing me a brown paper bag on my visit that autumn day in the early 90s. Her husband, Jim, a self-taught preacher, had died the month before. At first… Read more

  • WHAT A NURSE DOES BEST

    I found this article last February. It saddens me that we nurses are still at the mercy of others trying to define and rename us. Nurses do have many roles and titles and I suppose the general public still gets a bit confused. (See Jane Van De Velde’s guest post last week) My simplistic, but… Read more