1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910827351603321

Autore

Davis Cortney <1945->

Titolo

The heart's truth : essays on the art of nursing / / Cortney Davis

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Kent, Ohio : , : Kent State University Press, , 2009

©2009

ISBN

1-283-14668-1

9786613146687

1-61277-559-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 100 pages)

Collana

Literature and medicine ; ; 17

Disciplina

610.73

Soggetti

Nursing

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface; The Other Side of Illness; Washing Mrs. Cardiff's Feet; The Evening Back Rub; Being at the Bedside of the Dying; First Night in Charge; Talking to No One; Nursing and the Word; Beyond Scientific Explanation; Weekly Rounds; Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Nurse Practitioner; First, Do No Harm; Hearing the Stories behind Our Patients' Words; Body Teaching; Tattoos; Breaking Bad News; Becoming Flora; Raped; The Heart's Truth; Watching ER; Feeding the Deer; When Their Rhythms Become Mine; I Believe in Grief; Human Feelings, Human Experiences; Conscious Suffering; Afterword; Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

What is it like to be a student nurse washing the feet of a dying patient? To be a newly graduated nurse, in charge of the Intensive Care Unit for the first time, who wonders if her mistake might have cost a life? Or to be an experienced nurse who, by her presence and care, holds a patient to this world? The author, a poet and nurse practitioner answers these questions by examining her own experiences and through them reveals a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who care for us when we are at our most vulnerable. This work offers the joys, frustrations, fears, and miraculous moments that nurses, new and experienced, face every day. In these essays, she traces her twin paths, nursing and writing, inviting readers to share what she discovers along the way,



lessons not only about the human body but also about the human soul. Rich, intimate, and never shrinking from the realities of illness, the grace of healing, or the wonder of words, it will inspire student caregivers, intrigue readers, and affirm those who have long worked in nursing, a profession that the author calls "odd, mysterious, humbling, addicting, and often transcendent."