The Untold History of Nursing with Sarah DiGregorio
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What is the purpose of this episode and who is sponsoring it?
This episode of The Nocturnists is sponsored by the Buxbaum Siegler Institute for Clinical Excellence at the University of Chicago. The institute is dedicated to fostering compassionate doctor-patient relationships and advancing clinical care. Each year, the Bucksbaum Siegler Institute recognizes extraordinary healthcare professionals through the National Clinical Excellence Award. To learn more about the award and to nominate a deserving clinician, visit bucksbauminstitute. ushicago.edu. Support for the Nocturnist comes from the California Medical Association.
At the Nocturnist, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with healthcare privacy laws. Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer.
You're listening to the Nocturnous Conversations. I'm Emily Silverman. Nursing is a cornerstone of healthcare. An experience that touches all of us. Whether we've been cared for in sickness or supported through one of life's pivotal transitions like birth and death. Nursing is a fundamental human act. Nurses are at the bedside around the clock, assessing our physical health, but also assessing deeper things like our resolve, our capacity to heal, the dynamics of our support systems. Despite its vital role, nursing is often undervalued and its history overlooked. But today's guest, critically acclaimed author and journalist Sarah DiGregorio, seeks to change that with her remarkable book, Taking Care, the story of nursing and its power to change our world.
Through her vivid storytelling and meticulous research, Sarah sheds light on the rich and complex history of nursing, tracing its origins from ancient caregiving practices in Neolithic times to the transformative figures like Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who have helped to shape the profession. In our conversation, Sarah describes connections between nursing, religion, spirituality, and even magic. uncovering how nurses were often targeted and persecuted during historical witch hunts. We explore the idea of nursing as female coded work and the rise of men in the nursing profession today. And lastly, we talk about how nurses' assessment skills go far beyond the patient in front of them, as they often notice issues in their neighborhoods and communities and become important leaders in public health.
But before we dive in, let's hear Sarah reading an excerpt from her book, Taking Care.
If you have spent any time in a hospital or healthcare setting, you've probably had an encounter with a nurse that lingers in your mind. For most of my life, I have accompanied my mother, my father, and my daughter, all of whom suffered serious chronic illnesses, to hospitals, clinics, and rehab centers and through therapy of all kinds. To need healthcare in the United States is to seek healing in what often seems But every now and then someone in that labyrinth manages to see you, hear you, and offer exactly what you need. For me, these encounters stand out with crystalline clarity. They were moments of relief. Someone was going to help us. Someone could help us, even when that help didn't include a cure, even when there wasn't a fix.
And almost every single time the person who offered what we needed was a nurse. I've come to understand that that was not a coincidence. Sooner or later we all need to be nursed. A nurse may have been at your birth and may be at your death. Sometimes nurses are the first and last people to touch us. Nursing is a profession, an independent scientific discipline, a practice, and a way of interacting with the world. It's also an elemental public role, one that elicits deep feelings, beliefs, and anxieties in the collective imagination. I came to this meditation on nursing as a journalist, but also as someone who grew up surrounded by the illnesses of the people I loved most. Because I'm not a nurse myself, my perspective has limitations, but I would argue that nursing matters to everyone.
It draws much of its power and effectiveness from the relationship between nurse and patient.
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