I wasn't strong like this when I started out: true stories of becoming a nurse

273 Pages·2013·1.052 MB·English

by  Gutkind, Lee

“A STARTLING COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM THE BEDSIDE.”
“Required reading for anyone beginning a career in healthcare — nurses
—  Paul Austin, author of Something for the Pain: Compassion and Burnout in the ER and physicians alike.”
— Margaret Overton M.D, author of Good in a Crisis
Nurses, now more than ever, are the backbone of the healthcare
system, the first line in providing the best possible care for all pa-
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tients. Often, nursing demands technical expertise; sometimes,
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as these stories reveal, patients also need something more basic: a hand to n
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hold, or someone to listen closely. Being on the front lines of medicine requires I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out:
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empathy, fortitude, knowledge, and grace. The stories collected here reveal n
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nurses at all stages of their careers—passionate, terrified, sometimes simply L TRUE STORIES OF BECOMING A
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exhausted—as they take on one of the most challenging and underappreciated
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“This collection exposes not only the strong, beating heart of nursing, but its brain, S I S
muscle, sinew and nerve endings — alive, pulsating, raw, real.” TO ta EDITED BY LEE GUTKIND
r FOREWORD BY KAREN WOLK FEINSTEIN
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— Sayantani DasGupta, MD, MPH, e
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co-editor of Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies E
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“Like most physicians, I have a long list of nurses who have mentored me, influenc-
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ing my practice of medicine in the way they live their lives and care for their patients. E
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This book is a testament to those wise nursing colleagues — and to the paths that
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have brought them their wisdom.” M
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—  Marion Bishop, MD, PhD, emergency medicine physician and essayist N
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LEE GUTKIND is founder and editor of the U
MEDICAL ESSAYS
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literary magazine Creative  Nonfiction and
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has written and edited books about baseball, E
health care, travel and technology. He is cur-
rently Distinguished Writer in Residence at the
Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes G
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and Professor in the Hugh Downs School of TL
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Human Communication, both at Arizona IE
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USA $15.95 State University. D

I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out
TRUE STORIES OF
BECOMING
A NURSE
Edited by
LEE GUTKIND
Foreword by
KAREN WOLK FEINSTEIN
Pittsburgh
Copyright © 2013 Creative Nonfiction Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Requests for permission to reproduce material
from this work should be sent to:
Rights and Permissions
In Fact Books
C/O Creative Nonfiction Foundation
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Cover design by Tristen Knight
Text design by Heidi Whitcomb
ISBN: 978-1-937163-12-9
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS
Introduction: The Anonymous, Irreplaceable Nurse | 13
Lee Gutkind
Foreword: The Art of Meeting Patient Need | 21
Karen Wolk Feinstein
Hitting the Bone | 25 A Long Night’s Journey
Eddie Lueken into Day | 95
Theresa Brown
The Haunting | 35 Don’t Ever Forget Me | 105
Thomas Schwarz Christopher Lance Coleman
Becoming a Nurse | 47 Heart Lessons | 113
Laura DeVaney Diane Kraynak
Next of Kin | 57 Docking in Togo | 129
Josephine Ensign Jennifer Binger,
as told to Ann Swindell
Healing Wang Jie’s Bottom | 71 I See You | 143
L. Darby-Zhao Tilda Shalof
Zeitgeber | 83 Listening and
Denise Elliott Other Lifesaving Measures | 153
Karla Theilen
Careening toward Reunion | 167 Individually Identifiable | 229
Nina Gaby Pamela Baker
Nurse Nora at Nineteen | 181 Approaching Death | 243
Nora Casper Kimberly A. Condon
Four Sticks | 191 The Nurses Whispered | 251
Janice Dvorak Patricia A. Nugent
Messiah, Becoming | 259
Not Otherwise Specified | 203 Lori Mulvihill
Janet Gool
All Alone and Afraid: Becoming a
Person through Nursing | 217
Anna Gersman