Creative. I love the sound of this word. As a child in the forties and fifties, I don't think I ever heard it. In fact, the first emphasis on being creative that I encountered was in the late nineties when I read, then taught, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Reading Cameron opened my eyes to …
Continue reading Tidbits for Writers from the 10th Annual Creative Chicago Expo
Last week I read an article about “patient activation” with some amusement. Activation sounded like batteries. Did patients need a couple of Triple As inserted into the soles of their feet to get involved in their own health care? The article defined patient activation as “understanding one’s own role in the care process and having …
Continue reading Patient Activation – Nostalgia for Dorothea Orem!
I wish I had something more soothing to write for you today. But last Monday, after a three-day hissy fit of prickly-burning body-wide itching, a dermatologist looked at the tan line on my back and asked, "Where's this tan from? And how long ago did you get it?" “Aruba. Three weeks ago,” I said. "Then …
As she lay dying from pancreatic cancer, Nurse Martha Keochareon wanted to do more than plan her funeral. So she called her alma mater and offered to become a “case study” for nursing students. She reasoned she could help students learn about the dying process while, at the same time, it would be a way …
When I first read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1970, I cried with relief. Friedan had interviewed suburban housewives and found many were not fulfilled as homemakers. That was me. And like others in these first waves of feminism, I, after some painful soul-searching (chapters 5 and 6 in Caring Lessons), ventured out of …
As quoted in an Atlantic article (12/2/12), psychological researcher Ellen Cole says, “Seventy is a major milestone for women—a wake up call." She goes on to say, “It’s the age at which, according to Pew, most women think ‘old age’ begins.” Wow. This struck home as I’m on this year-long celebration of turning seventy. I …
As a retired nurse educator, I’m excited about the trend in nursing to prepare nurses at a younger age for research and, particularly, academic careers. As we older nurses like to say, “in my day” as a new diploma grad in 1962, I never thought about a full-time career in academia. In fact, in those …
"If only" runs through my mind as I remember our 50th reunion of a week ago. Twenty-nine of forty classmates (three have died) met at Camp Geneva in Holland, Michigan, from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday morning. Many of us, as proud members of the Blodgett Memorial Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1962, had not …
My sister Kay passed away during the night from lung cancer. Just a month ago, as I sat at her bedside, she told me in that big sister tone, "I'm going to beat this thing." As a nurse and teacher, she was my lifelong career mentor. I mourn her passing in the most gut-level way. …
Continue reading In Memoriam – Kathleen E. Korthuis, PhD, RN, 1934-2012
"I'd like you ask you something, " a patient said to the nurse. "Are you Asian?" The nurse, Caucasian, said, "No, I'm not. What makes you ask?" "Your name. On your badge. It says Debbie WOCN. And that last name sounds Asian." Last Saturday, I heard this story from an attendee at the Mideast Region …
Continue reading A Shout Out to Wound Ostomy and Continence Nurses
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