Tag: health care

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

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?

COMPETITION

An article in my local newspaper on March 10th, More Training, Bigger Roles for N.C. Nurse Practitioners, got me so fired up that I dashed off a response before the day was over. I knew as I composed my letter-to-the-editor chiding the North Carolina Medical Society for ignoring research that proves nurse practitioners’ practice is…… Continue reading COMPETITION

VANISHED Part 3 of 3

A couple of weeks after our hallway discussion, I spotted them exiting the elevator. Margaret pushed Josie in the wheelchair with one hand while lugging an IV pole with the other, rushing to the back door of the building and out to the parking lot in a obvious effort to avoid me. The bottle that…… Continue reading VANISHED Part 3 of 3

VANISHED Part 2 of 3

When the clinic first opened last year, Margaret would saunter in holding Josie’s hand, pulling her along. While Margaret’s stringy hair and disheveled clothes reflected an indifference to her own appearance, Josie always looked neat. Like a treasured, well cared for doll. Her deeply wrinkled face blank but her blue eyes held a sparkle. She…… Continue reading VANISHED Part 2 of 3

AN ODE TO THE BEST HOUSE ON THE BLOCK

Nurses who make home visits will be able to relate to this. I scan houses I would like to visit—to see not only who lives in them but how they live. What health problems or social issues would I have to address? I took a picture of this house on the west side of Chicago…… Continue reading AN ODE TO THE BEST HOUSE ON THE BLOCK

CARING AND THE MALE NURSE

Back in the ‘80s I ran a clinic for the elderly that was housed in an apartment on the tenth floor of a Chicago high rise. My patients came to see me, a nurse practitioner, in the office but in many instances I would later check up on them in their apartments in the building…… Continue reading CARING AND THE MALE NURSE

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…… Continue reading NURSE PRACTITIONER VERSUS PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT