In Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses, sixty-five nurses from places as diverse as California and Alaska, South America and Europe, tell us in tough, revealing poems and prose what it's like to be on the front lines of health care. These nurses, both men and women, speak to us from intensive care units and operating rooms, from patients' homes and storefront clinics, from hospitals with the latest technology to small clinics in the steamy jungles of Nicaragua. They tell us what it's like to walk in their shoes and see the drama of illness and healing unfold before their eyes.
“Cortney Davis and Judy Schaefer, editors as well as powerful contributors to this book, have compiled a beautiful and important collection of writing. These are the people who keep us alive and bid us farewell—with unwavering sensitivity and grace. Not only do these nurses deserve to be heard, but it's also a privilege to witness their lives.” —Nell Casey, editor of Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression
| Foreword | ||
| Medical Ward | 1 | |
| A Moment in the History of Nursing | 3 | |
| Night Shift | 6 | |
| September | 7 | |
| Thin Margin | 9 | |
| The Dance | 10 | |
| Does This Date Mean Anything to You? | 11 | |
| Object of Desire | 17 | |
| Chemo | 18 | |
| Sunday | 19 | |
| Mercy and Hemlock | 20 | |
| Code Blue | 21 | |
| Burn | 23 | |
| Down the Hospital Corridor | 23 | |
| Dar a Luz | 25 | |
| Male Nurse Washing a Nun | 27 | |
| Dark Lines and Words | 28 | |
| Pick Up the Spoon | 29 | |
| The Essence of Nursing: 1967 | 30 | |
| The Crickets Went On Singing | 34 | |
| Forget-Me-Nots | 35 | |
| School's Nurse's Journal | 36 | |
| Mammography: A Word with Grandma's Ghost | 38 | |
| Body of Knowledge: Remembering Diploma Schools, 1976 | 40 | |
| Call and Response | 41 | |
| Standing There | 42 | |
| Breathless | 43 | |
| Miscarriage: The Nurse Speaks to the Baby | 44 | |
| What Nurses Do: The Marriage of Suffering and Healing | 45 | |
| The Radio | 47 | |
| Slowly, Life Returned to Normal | 49 | |
| Good-bye | 58 | |
| What Nurses Do Best | 59 | |
| In the OR | 61 | |
| The Color of Blood | 62 | |
| Career Day | 67 | |
| The Swan by the Mall | 68 | |
| Every Day, the Pregnant Teenagers | 69 | |
| Water Story | 70 | |
| How I'm Able to Love | 70 | |
| The Other Side of Illness | 72 | |
| Marisol | 75 | |
| Counting the Children | 77 | |
| What Thomas Wanted | 78 | |
| Children's Unit Blues | 79 | |
| One on One with Dylan Thomas | 81 | |
| Autopsy No. 24722 | 84 | |
| The Shape of the Human Spine | 85 | |
| Sarah's Pumpkin Bread | 87 | |
| Rubbing Her Back at the Nursing Home | 91 | |
| Premature | 92 | |
| Eurydice in the State Hospital Laundry | 93 | |
| Portrait | 94 | |
| Edna's Star | 95 | |
| Conversation with Wendy | 100 | |
| Port-a-Cath | 101 | |
| Ten Items or Less | 102 | |
| Tet, Vietnam 1968 | 103 | |
| The Story of Mr. President | 104 | |
| Age Garden | 105 | |
| The Teacher | 107 | |
| At the Beginning of Each Shift | 109 | |
| Like a Night Watchman | 110 | |
| The Facts of Lice in Nueva Vida, Nicaragua | 111 | |
| Stethoscope | 114 | |
| Mourning Coffee | 115 | |
| Endurance and Faith | 118 | |
| Four Men, Sitting | 126 | |
| Not Mine | 129 | |
| Old Man in Bedclothes | 131 | |
| Redemption at the Women's Center | 132 | |
| Arrival | 133 | |
| The One | 134 | |
| Shifts | 135 | |
| Miss Smith | 137 | |
| Charlie's Koan | 137 | |
| Why We Wore White | 138 | |
| The Nurse's Job | 140 | |
| La Muerte | 141 | |
| Negative Conditioning | 142 | |
| Admission | 143 | |
| Nurse in Neighborhood Clinic Disappeared | 144 | |
| The Politics of Disease | 147 | |
| Bataan Angels | 148 | |
| A Nurse's Farewell | 149 | |
| Mr. Tims's Morning | 152 | |
| That Mystique | 158 | |
| I Remember Vietnam | 168 | |
| Change of Shift | 171 | |
| Car Spotting | 173 | |
| Pre-op | 185 | |
| Covert of Zero | 186 | |
| What Was Left of Summer | 187 | |
| What Nurses Do on Their Day Off | 188 | |
| A Pediatric Nurse over Time | 189 | |
| Long Distance Call | 190 | |
| A Bridge | 191 | |
| Astronomy and Nursing | 192 | |
| Terminal Nurse: Reflections on New Millennium Nursing | 193 | |
| Eurycleia | 194 | |
| Home Visits | 195 | |
| On Switching from Nursing to English | 196 | |
| Long-Term Companion | 198 | |
| Girl | 199 | |
| RX for Nurses: Brag! | 203 | |
| Sailor Explains Kissing the Nurse | 204 | |
| Army Nurses, Vietnam, 1966 | 205 | |
| Mercy | 207 | |
| We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse's Story | 221 | |
| The Door Locker | 230 | |
| Nursing 101: Pediatric Rotation | 233 | |
| Sixteen Standing Hours | 234 | |
| Shots | 235 | |
| The Forgery | 236 | |
| It Was My First Nursing Job | 238 | |
| Stuff I Learned in Nursing School | 241 | |
| Doppelganger | 242 | |
| Smile! You're in a Nursing Home | 244 | |
| Neonatal ICU | 247 | |
| Hands Beckoning | 248 | |
| Afterword | 251 | |
| About the Contributors | 253 | |
| Permissions | 261 | |
| Index to Titles and First Lines | 265 |
Overview
In Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses, sixty-five nurses from places as diverse as California and Alaska, South America and Europe, tell us in tough, revealing poems and prose what it's like to be on the front lines of health care. These nurses, both men and women, speak to us from intensive care units and operating rooms, from patients' homes and storefront clinics, from hospitals with the latest technology to small clinics in the steamy jungles of Nicaragua. They tell us what it's like to walk in ...