Tag: 2024 Nurse Essay Contest
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Massaging the baby
Erin FroschCork, Ireland The centuries-old practice of baby massage has been used as early as 2670 BC in China1 to promote bonding between parent and child and demonstrate affection through physical touch, words of affirmation, and quality time. It has been passed down from generation to generation in cultures across Africa, Asia, and the South…
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Working abroad
Julius MontuertoLobogon, Duero, Bohol, Philippines Nursing school in the Philippines is among the most expensive undergraduate programs anyone can pursue. Having the opportunity to enroll in this program is a privilege and earning that nursing diploma guarantees financial stability—but only if we work abroad. Nurses in the Philippines are not well compensated. Every year, thousands…
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Metrodora: Egyptian physician, midwife, and surgeon
Geraldine MillerLiverpool, England Metrodora is considered to be the “the mother of gynecology.”1 Yet, for many centuries, she has remained unknown. Even today, there are few within the medical community who know much about her pioneering work as a midwife, gynecologist, and surgeon who performed “procedures ahead of her era.”2 She is believed to have…
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Invitation to tea
Sandra GaynorChicago, Illinois, United States Kena motioned for me to come up to her apartment. I had driven her home from the knitting circle, as I did every Wednesday. This was the third time she had asked me to “come up for tea,” and so I accepted. Kena is in her fifties, I think. She…
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They made their own insulin: The story of Eva and Viktor Saxl
Ellen DavisChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States Eva Saxl not only saved her own life by making insulin during World War II, but together with her husband Viktor, saved the lives of over 400 people with diabetes in war-torn Shanghai. Her life story has remained relatively obscure—I had first seen Eva’s photo in 1991 on the…
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An emergency nurse in the time of Covid
Kimberly TranchitaChicago, Illinois, United States April 2020 I hug my family and leave for work in the ED. No cars on the road. I stop at McDonald’s to get my free “frontline worker” cup of coffee. I no longer bring my own coffee or anything else to work in an attempt to limit the germs…
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Waiting
Sandra GaynorChicago, Illinois, United States What is waiting? As a child, waiting was, for me, a time to be angry with my father. He found it impossible to be on time for any event. When the rest of the family was dressed and sitting with coats on, he was thinking about showering and shaving and…