Honoring Nurses—Artfully

Artwork and collage by Rebecca Moses.

They’re not your typical images of nurses—no scrubs or PPE in sight. A series of portraits by fashion designer and artist Rebecca Moses depicts nurses in their own clothes, celebrating them as unique and vibrant individuals. The paintings, which are featured on AJN‘s May cover (at left) and contextualized in our On the Cover article, are currently on display at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital in an exhibition to thank nurses for their work.

The art project got its start on Instagram.

In the earliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moses began posting daily portraits on Instagram of women who shared their lockdown stories with her. One woman who contacted Moses was the sister of Linda Valentino, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, chief nursing officer of Mount Sinai West and vice-president of women’s and children’s services at the Mount Sinai Health System. Valentino’s sister told Moses about Linda’s work on the front lines of the pandemic. Inspired by […]

2021-05-05T09:06:32-04:00May 5th, 2021|Nursing|0 Comments
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Permission to Grieve: A Poet Addresses the Unmapped Territory of Pregnancy Loss

You were so new, still more dream than person.

A poetry submission hits a personal chord.

photo by Susanne Nilsson/flickr

As the column coordinator for AJN’s Art of Nursing, which publishes poetry, flash fiction, and visual art related to health and health care, many poems cross my desk. I always appreciate the creativity and emotion in these poems, even when they aren’t quite a fit for our journal. And then there are the ones that not only fit, but that strike a personal chord and stay with me.

“Carrying,” by Katie Manning, PhD, MA, is one such poem. (Click on the PDF for the best version.) It immediately touched me because of the powerful way it described a sensitive topic: pregnancy loss. As a mother who lost a pregnancy in my second trimester, I found myself nodding with tears in my eyes at her elegant descriptions of grief and loss.

The poem received universal praise from our peer reviewers, and when I wrote to Manning to tell her we’d accepted it, I added a personal note about my own experience (something I had never done as an editor). We exchanged words of comfort and spoke about how the topic is not nearly discussed enough.

An often […]

2020-03-16T12:16:01-04:00March 16th, 2020|patient experience, women's health|2 Comments
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A Chorus of Bravo! and Huzzah! for these ‘Art of Nursing’ Contributors

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Albuquerque Moon from Two Albuquerque Moons, (c) Charles Kaiman 2007

The digital grapevine has brought news from several Art of Nursing contributors, and it makes me happy to pass it along. If you’re not already familiar with AJN’s Art of Nursing page, it’s a regular monthly department that features poetry, “flash” fiction, and visual art. Visit our Web site and have a look! (Art of Nursing is always free; please click through to the PDFs for the best view.)

Bernadette Geyer’s first full-length collection of poetry, The Scabbard of Her Throat, was published last month by The Word Works. It was selected for publication under the Hilary Tham Capital Collection imprint by Cornelius Eady. Geyer also has a poem in the second volume of the anthology The Waiting Room Reader: Words to Keep You Company, edited by Rachel Hadas and published in February by CavanKerry Press. Geyer, whose poem “Lessons” was featured in Art of Nursing (May 2010), works as a copy editor in the Washington, DC, area.

Charles Kaiman had a one-person show of his paintings in February and March at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City, his 15th solo show. For a virtual peek, visit the gallery’s web site. Kaiman’s art has appeared numerous times in our pages, most recently “Candlelight Self-Portrait” (September 2011) and “Lemon and Honey” (September 2009). Kaiman works as a clinical nurse specialist […]

2016-11-21T13:07:57-05:00April 3rd, 2013|Nursing|1 Comment
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Those Who Wait: Recent Work in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“I held that stone / in my hand for hours while they split your bones,” says the narrator of Janet Parkinson’s poem “Talisman,” which appears this month in Art of Nursing. The poem speaks to the tremendous strain of waiting for the outcome of a loved one’s emergency surgery. It’s about the  need for connection over great distances, for a “stone constant” in the face of grave uncertainty. The poet’s voice is unsentimental and steady, and the poem, just seven lines, itself feels almost talismanic. (Art of Nursing is always free online—just click through to the PDF file.)

In Roger Davies’s poem “Preparing to Pretend to Knit at the Chemotherapy Clinic,” featured in October’s Art of Nursing, a husband also waits, feeling helpless. “I’ll choose the long, elegant needles,” he says, imagining homespun wools dyed in autumn colors. Recalling his mother’s “nonchalant / competence” at the craft, he longs for the solace found in knowing what to do—even if it’s only how to hold the needles. In the poem’s last lines, the narrator says, “I could look out the window / to this fading autumn day.” But it’s clear that he’s not quite ready to see that view yet.

Rebecca Thomas’s painting “The Waiting Room: Norma,” featured in November, depicts the artist’s grandmother, who […]

2016-11-21T13:11:08-05:00December 19th, 2011|Nursing, patient engagement|1 Comment
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Compassion for Those Among Us: Recent Poems in ‘Art of Nursing’

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

In Carolyn Scarbrough’s poem “A Rose By Any Other Name” (Art of Nursing, August), a nurse sees an “opaque rose, unfurling” on a CT scan of an infant’s brain. Recognizing this as “evidence of violent acts,” she knows the outcome will almost certainly be tragic. Yet when she looks from the scan to the exhausted young father, another memory shifts her thoughts from “trauma to love.” With each reading, this poem reveals more about the intertwining of outrage and compassion. (Art of Nursing is always free online—just click through to the PDF file.)

“I try / to meditate on emptiness, // receive the next lungful, ignore / my prattling mind,” says the narrator of Risa Denenberg’s poem “Three-Part Breath” (Art of Nursing, July). The poem’s title refers to a yoga breathing practice, one built on trust; as the yoga teacher says, “There will always be // another inhalation.” […]

2016-11-21T13:12:09-05:00August 12th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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