Featured Articles

The Nurses

At age twenty one, Caroline Knapp weighed less than eighty-three pounds. An Ivy League graduate, an aspiring journalist, and the child of an intact family, she adhered to an identical daily menu for three years; a sesame bagel, a coffee-flavored yogurt, an apple, and a one-inch cube of cheese.

Coping with Death and Dying

The nurse experiences loss in working with the dying and their families. Grief is the emotional response to these losses and needs to be expressed in order to facilitate adaptive coping. The nurse may experience feelings of anxiety and grief as well as cumulative loss when he or she is unable to cope effectively with each loss. Ineffective coping mechanisms may include avoidance and emotional distance.

Health Care Phobia

When someone in my home gets sick I begin a mental game. I look at all the facts, then convince myself whatever is wrong is nothing. Once I've made that conclusion, something at the back of my brain begins to tickle until it pushes out the worst case scenario it can come up with and starts hammering me with doubts and questions.

Occupational Hazards

Of course it bothered me that we were embarking on a busy clinic day without the "spirits" in which to soak the torn strips of fake-snow cotton that we keep in a screw-top plastic jar and use as alcohol wipes. But the nurse I would be working with in the Voluntary HIV Testing room assured me that we would collect a bottle of the bright purple disinfectant from the dispensary first thing the following morning.

One of the Crew

Back home in New Haven, the nurses at my old clinic bonded over oversized cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a box of assorted, trans-fatted baked goods. On my last day of work, my usual was waiting for me on my emptied desk, a small regular with cream and real sugar and a corn muffin.

Masthead

  • Masthead

    Editor-in Chief:
    Kirsten Nicole

    Editorial Staff:
    Kirsten Nicole
    Stan Kenyon
    Robyn Bowman
    Kimberly McNabb
    Lisa Gordon
    Stephanie Robinson
     

    Contributors:
    Kirsten Nicole
    Stan Kenyon
    Liz Di Bernardo
    Cris Lobato
    Elisa Howard
    Susan Cramer