Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: Nursing

  • Nurse reading

    A nurse is sitting at the bedside of a wounded man with a bandage over his eyes; she is reading him a letter. Photographic postcard, ca. 1930. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0   This Turkish postcard shows a nurse reading a letter to a wounded man. The nurse appears to smile, even as her…

  • Balancing empathy

    Nora Salisbury Vancouver, BC, Canada   Street art in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Photo by Lee Gangbar. I almost fainted on my first clinical day in nursing school. I was invited to watch a catheter insertion. While my gut reaction was to completely avoid it, I knew that as a new student nurse I was supposed…

  • Dressing the General

    Rebecca Singer Chicago, Illinois, United States   While not the clinic where this story took place, this very rural health center in a developing nation highlights the challenging environment in which health care is provided by dedicated, hardworking staff. “Rebecca, can you help me with a dressing change?” Clarence, the nurse and secessionist fighter, asked…

  • Saint Elisabeth, a saintly nurse

    Saint Elizabeth of Hungary bringing food for the inmates of a hospital. Wellcome Collection. CC BY-NC 4.0. Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Colored engraving by W. Langhammer. Wellcome Collection. Public domain.   Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231) is one of the most loved saints of the Middle Ages. Also called St. Elisabeth of Thuringia, she is the patron…

  • Florence Nightingale, The Lady with the Lamp

    Florence Nightingale visiting the sick.  Wellcome Library, London For generations, Florence Nightingale has been known as the Saintly Angel of Mercy or the Lady with the Lamp, and her story has been told many times. She arrived in Scutari in November of 1854 with thirty-eight women volunteers, sent by her close friend, the war secretary,…

  • The Attentive Nurse

    The “nurse” peeling a lemon in Chardin’s painting bears scant resemblance to what the modern eye would recognize as a nurse.  She holds neither bandages, nor a thermometer, nor medicines. Her “uniform” leans more towards that of a kitchen helper or a housemaid. This is not surprising, because in the days before Florence Nightingale’s reforms nursing…

  • Hands

    Laura White Rochester, Minnesota, United States   I have long been ambivalent toward my prematurely wrinkled hands. This is a combination of my mother’s distaste for her own mitts – I am so sorry you got my hands – and the various comments of others referencing “old lady hands” and similar sentiments. My self-hand-concept has been historically unglamorous.…

  • The realities of being a millennial nurse leader

    Victorina Malones Manila, Phillippines   Nursing advertisement published by the American Association of the Red Cross in 1918 People may well think that being a millennial only has something to do with social media, selfies, travel, make-up tutorials, impulsiveness, recklessness, carelessness, or freedom. But as the world keeps getting smaller through interconnectivity and constant mobility,…

  • Birthday party

    Laura White Rochester, Minnesota, United States   I scan the chemotherapy data into the computer system, noting the date of birth listed at the top right of the screen. Happy birthday, I say, hanging the bag of liquid on the IV pole. Thanks, he replies, and we share a contemptuous laugh. It feels like a…

  • Sunday Sally Rose

    Matthew Kinsella Browns Mills, New Jersey, United States   Rose symbolism on gravestone, submitted by author As the new triage nurse on  the City Department Of Homeless Services Street Outreach Team, I could observe at first, orient, get my bearings. Well acquainted with the stark reality of life on the street, my three interdisciplinary teammates…