Learning to Heal

Description

What is it like to be a student nurse? What are the joys, the stresses, the transcendent moments, the fall-off-your-bed- laughing moments, and the terrors that have to be faced and stared down? And how might nurses, looking back, relate these experiences in ways that bring these memories to life again and provide historical context for how nursing education has changed and yet remained the same?In brave, revealing, and often humorous poetry and prose, Learning to Heal explores these questions with contributions by nurses from a variety of social, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds. Readers meet a black nursing student who is surrounded by white teachers and patients in 1940, a mother who rises every morning at 5 A.M. to help her family ready for their day before she herself heads to anatomy class, and an itinerant Jewish teenager whois asked, "What will you become?" These individuals, and many other women and men, share personal stories of finding their way to nursing school, where they begin a long, often wonderful, and sometimes daunting, journey.Many of the nurse-authors are experienced, well- published writers; others are academics, widely known in their fields; but each offers a unique perspective on nursing education. Notably, an essay by Minnie Brown Carter and an interview with Helen L. Albert provide valuable ethnographies of underrepresented voices.Through strong, moving essays and poems that explore various aspects of student nursing and provide historical perspective on nursing and nursing education, all have stories to tell. Learning to Heal tells them in ways that will appeal to many readers, both in and out of the nursing and medical professions, and to educators in the medical humanities.

Sujets

• Nursing
• Comparative literature

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631013614
• Langue: English

Extrait

“This arresting anthology of student nurses’ memories, skillfully assembled by Jeanne Bryner and Cortney Davis, illustrates the responsibilities thrust upon naïve and often sheltered young people as they learn to nurse. Historically significant in presenting the healthcare of decades past—the disabled baby left to die in a linen closet, his unknowing mother sobbing nearby; the man dying, kept separate from his wife of over fifty years by the unbending rules of hospital isolation—these memories need to be preserved. With grace and lilting eloquence, these essays and poems show what it means to be a nurse in training. Nurses will recognize their own commonalities with these students while everyone will have entrée to the singular intricacies and challenges of studying nursing.”
—BRIGID LUSK, PhD, RN, FAAN
director, Midwest Nursing History Research Center, and adjunct clinical professor, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing
“Introduces the reader to the personal stories of women and men during their arduous and, at times, exhilarating training for this most intimate of professions. These nurse-authors shatter the long-held image of nurses in white caps and starched uniforms and invite us into their world where, at the bedsides of patients, touch is an instrument of healing—holding the hand of a patient undergoing a procedure, or whispering ‘I’m here with you,’ in the ear of a dying patient as they take a last breath. We read of their fear as they open the door to meet their first patient, the scrutiny and support of their teachers, as well as the racism and sexism they confront along the way. Learning to Heal is a gift to all of us who, at some point in our lives, will have a nurse at our side in our most vulnerable moments—offering their skill, their comfort, and their humanity.”
—LUCY BRUELL
editor-in-chief, Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, and associate director, H.A.M.E. Program
“In Learning to Heal , Jeanne Bryner and Cortney Davis have opened a marvelous window into the world of nursing education. In consistently engaging poetry and prose, this anthology captures the lived experiences of student nurses in multiple voices over many decades. As they progress along varied paths, they discover that the secret of healing lies in words and relationships, in human presence and touch.”
—JACK COULEHAN, MD, MPH
editor of Chekhov’s Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov’s Medical Tales (Kent State University Press)
“The meaning and challenges of work are not always visible to outsiders, but poetry can show us not only why work matters but what it does for and the costs it exacts from workers. The poems gathered in Learning to Heal make visible the dignity of a profession that is at once exhausting and creative, intimate and institutional. The nurse-writers who tell their stories in Learning to Heal reveal how their daily labor weaves specialized knowledge and routine together with tenderness and caretaking.”
—SHERRY LINKON
professor of English and American Studies, Georgetown University, and a scholar of working-class literature and culture
Learning to Heal
LITERATURE AND MEDICINE
Michael Blackie, Editor • Carol Donley and Martin Kohn, Founding Editors
  1 Literature and Aging: An Anthology Edited by Martin Kohn, Carol Donley, and Delese Wear
  2 The Tyranny of the Normal: An Anthology Edited by Carol Donley and Sheryl Buckley
  3 What’s Normal? Narratives of Mental and Emotional Disorders Edited by Carol Donley and Sheryl Buckley
  4 Recognitions: Doctors and Their Stories Edited by Carol Donley and MartinKohn
  5 Chekhov’s Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov’s Medical Tales Edited by Jack Coulehan
  6 Tenderly Lift Me: Nurses Honored, Celebrated, and Remembered Jeanne Bryner
  7 The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-Poets Edited by Judy Schaefer
  8 Our Human Hearts: A Medical and Cultural Journey Albert Howard Carter III
  9 Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other Strangers Jay Baruch
10 Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies Edited by Sayantani DasGupta and Marsha Hurst
11 Wider than the Sky: Essays and Meditations on the Healing Power of Emily Dickinson Edited by Cindy Mackenzie and Barbara Dana
12 Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe Tom Batiuk
13 Bodies and Barriers: Dramas of Dis-Ease Edited by Angela Belli
14 The Spirit of the Place: A Novel Samuel Shem
15 Return to The House of God: Medical Resident Education 1978–2008 Edited by Martin Kohn and Carol Donley
16 The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing Cortney Davis
17 Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease Edited by Holly J. Hughes
18 The Country Doctor Revisited: A Twenty-First Century Reader Edited by Therese Zink
19 The Widows’ Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival Edited by Jacqueline Lapidus and Lise Menn
20 When the Nurse Becomes a Patient: A Story in Words and Images Cortney Davis
21 What’s Left Out Jay Baruch
22 Roses in December: An Alzheimer’s Story Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers
23 Mysterious Medicine: The Doctor-Scientist Tales of Hawthorne and Poe Edited by L. Kerr Dunn
24 Keeping Reflection Fresh: A Practical Guide for Clinical Educators Edited by Allan Peterkin and Pamela Brett-MacLean
25 Human Voices Wake Us Jerald Winakur
26 Learning to Heal: Reflections on Nursing School in Poetry and Prose Edited by Jeanne Bryner and Cortney Davis
Learning to Heal
Reflections on Nursing School in Poetry and Prose

Edited by Jeanne Bryner and Cortney Davis
Foreword by Judy Schaefer


The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio
© 2018 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2018008738
ISBN 978-1-60635-358-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever, without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of short quotations in critical reviews or articles.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Bryner, Jeanne, 1951- editor. | Davis, Cortney, 1945- editor.
Title: Learning to heal : reflections on nursing school in poetry and prose / edited by Jeanne Bryner and Cortney Davis.
Description: Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2018] | Series: Literature and medicine ; 26
Identifiers: LCCN 2018008738 | ISBN 9781606353585 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Nurses’ writings, American. | Nursing--Literary collections. | Nurses--Literary collections.
Classification: LCC PS509.N87 L43 2018 | DDC 811/.608092161073--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008738
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For our patients, whose vulnerability, trust, and courage called us to the bedside
Jeanne Bryner: for Summar
Cortney Davis: as ever, for my family
CONTENTS
Foreword by Judy Schaefer
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Jeanne Bryner
PART I I have never been so afraid.
Linda Maurer Tuthill
A School for Hands
Saundra Sarsany
For Now
I Became a Nurse
Barbara Broome
I Am Not Superwoman
Anne Webster
One Nurse’s Education
Jeanne LeVasseur
Each One, Alone
Becoming Real
Madeleine Mysko
The Sacraments of Sister Thecla
Rachel Renee Gage
The Musical Sound Track in a Nurse’s Day
M. Ben Melnykovich
My Second Go-Around
Amy Haddad
Ablutions
Cortney Davis
Selling Kisses at the Diner
Joanne Clarkson
First Patient
Stacy Nigliazzo
In my first year
Miriam Crawford Grant
The Titan in Room 406
PART II How many languages are there? I wondered.
Kelly Sievers
Heads Bowed
Whispered
Jeanne Bryner
Debridement, Burn Unit, 1978
Minnie Brown Carter
Inequality, Work, Perseverance, Sleepless Nights, Service
Eileen Valinoti
Hospital Corners
Pattama Ulrich
Me and the New World
Paula Sergi
The Structure of Nursing School in an Otherwise Chaotic Life
Judy Schaefer
After the Code, Student Nurse
I’ve singing lessons
Mary Gavan
When to Hold and When to Fold
Cortney Davis
Nursing 101
Yolanda Perez-Shulman
My First Clinical Day
Rachel Renee Gage
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
Heather Foster
Marriage as Sterile Technique
Lady Amaka Offodile
From a Far Place
Linda Maurer Tuthill
Relics
Jeanne Bryner
These Also Were My Teachers, Senior Year, 1978
PART III I can put the words down, like a hand against suffering.
Geoffrey Bowe
Student Nurse: An Early Experience in Mental Health
Marilyn Mitchell
A Hundred Thousand Hospital Beds
Rosa M. Sacharin
Nurse Training in Scotland 1943–1951
Rosanne Trost
Lesson Learned
Patricia Kalas
My Most Selfless “Patient,” My Greatest Teacher
Rev. Robert J. Kus
The Pin
Madeleine Mysko
Calvert and Pleasant
Heather Foster
Dissection
Ellen Hunter Ulken
Of Nursing School
Stacy Nigliazzo
Rotation
Celia Brown
My First Journey Abroad
Kathleen Goldbach
Dirty Utility Room
James Guliano
Sacred Values, Soothing Silence
Patricia Harman
My Patients, My Teachers
Helen Albert
Helen Albert, First Black Registered Nurse Hired in Trumbull County, Ohio
PART IV And the baby’s head emerges, his hair dark and wet like the earth after rain.
Rita Maria Magdaleno
May Snapshot, 1966
Celia Brown
The First Hour
Virginia Ruth
Mr. Magoo of Nursing School
Geoffrey Bowe
Student Nurse on a Bus
Muriel Murch
The Bed Bath
Pattama Ulrich
Human Anatomy Class
Cortney Davis
Wednesday’s Child
Kristine Garcia-Cross
Student Nurse: Last Clinical Day, OB, Block 3
PART V He cradles his sax, gone the rush of his breath through the reed.
Nancy Kerrigan
Ward 24
Linda Maurer Tuthill
Visiting Nurse (1963)
Kathleen Cadmus
The Novice
Muriel Murch
Brookwood Female Geriatric
Beverly Mitchell
Rabbit Hole
Jeanne Bryner
There Is Mud Here
Men’s Ward, Psych Rotation, 1978
Madeleine Mysko
The Sister on the Chronic Ward
Veneta Masson
Mor