Tag: Nursing Stories

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

A Hospice Nurse is Featured in The New Yorker

Larissa MacFarquhar is a staff writer for the New Yorker. She has written profiles on “do-gooders,” people whose altruistic acts “spring from genuine empathy.” Her subjects are varied: Quentin Tarantino, Diane von Furstenberg and Paul Krugman. Most recently she spotlighted Heather Meyerend, not a famous person, but a nurse. Her story starts on page 62…… Continue reading A Hospice Nurse is Featured in The New Yorker

Why Your Imperfections Make You Perfect

I’m now taking watercolor classes, struggling to create something that I can be proud of but mostly learning how to be humble and not compare myself with my fellow classmates. As hard as I try to enjoy the journey and not focus on the end result, I still strive to have my finished product an…… Continue reading Why Your Imperfections Make You Perfect

 I Am Grateful to the Nurses

In 2013 I toured the new intensive care units back at the hospital where I volunteer. At the time I was acutely aware how outdated my nursing skills were and realized that I wouldn’t even be safe to flip on a light switch. The state-of-the-art machines were daunting. I never thought that three years later…… Continue reading  I Am Grateful to the Nurses

The Surreal Hospital Experience

My husband was discharged from the hospital following two heart valve replacements, and a week later was readmitted with a side effect of the surgery that occurs ten percent of the time. He was taken to his room directly from the ER. I hadn’t the foresight to bring along my coloring book and pencils—mindless relaxing…… Continue reading The Surreal Hospital Experience

Hearing Zebras

Zebra is the American medical slang for arriving at an exotic medical diagnosis when a more commonplace explanation is more likely.[1] It is shorthand for the aphorism coined in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Woodward, professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who instructed his medical interns: “When you hear hoofbeats, think…… Continue reading Hearing Zebras

Nurses’ Books Need More Media Attention

In my last post, I told you about a couple of books I discovered—short story collections written by nurses. Lynn Rosack wrote a comment on my last post reminding me that Echo Heron, whose book I covered, Emergency 24/7: Nurses of the Emergency Room (2015) had written other nursing books. One of them, Intensive Care:…… Continue reading Nurses’ Books Need More Media Attention

Nursing Stories by the Hundreds!

Now that my book has been reworked and has a new title—Playing Sheriff: A Nurse Practitioner’s Story—I am ready to get it in print. In order to do this, I’ve been looking for books about nursing, and preferably written by a nurse. to see how these reached publication. First of all, I found out was…… Continue reading Nursing Stories by the Hundreds!