Sanity is madness put to good use. – George Santayana
Nursing Beyond the Books
19Sep2011 Author: Mother Jones, RN
Meet nurse Preen from the movie The Man Who Came to Dinner. Nurse Preen faced a common problem. She had a patient that drove her nuts. His name was Sheridan “Sherry” Whiteside, a caustic radio personality and critic. This is my favorite interaction in the movie.
Sherry: “Ah, pecan butternut fudge!”
Preen: “Oh, my, you mustn’t eat candy, Mr. Whiteside, it’s very bad for you.”
Sherry: “My great-aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102 and when she’d been dead three days, she looked better than you do now!”
Nurse Preen gives a great speech when she quits her job:
“I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you, Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!”
Oh yeah, baby! Let it rip!!! Give him that last parting shot. She says that she was going to quit nursing, but I bet she never did. Every nurse has a story about an infamous patient, and about why they never leave the nursing profession. Martin from Online Nursing Degrees posted a series of nursing interviews on their website. The series, Nursing Beyond the Books, is worth checking out. I wonder what Nurse Preen’s interview would look like. I want to thank Martin for including my interview in the series.
2 Responses to “Nursing Beyond the Books”
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Disclaimer
There has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about medical bloggers and HIPAA regulations so let me make this very clear: I write composite stories about many different people that I've cared for over the years.
Dianne Douglas
September 22nd, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I wish every nurse like Nurse Spreen could give such a great parting shot before she quits her job. We’re working on a movie project where the nurse who plays the lead dies for doing her job —
Movie Puncture Exposes Hep B&C, Hiv Dangers In Needlestick Injuries For Nurses, Healthcare Workers
http://bitly.com/PunctureMovie
We can’t give you Mary Wicks (Nurse Preen) to interview but
we can give you the actress Vanessa Shaw, (who plays Nurse Vicky). Nurse Preen may have had a patient that drove her nuts but Nurse Vicky’s passing launched a legal case that helped usher in the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act 2000.
cristine gonzales
September 23rd, 2011 at 12:45 am
I do admire those nurses that are extending their hands even they are not inside the hospital nor at the school where prof or clinical instructors are around. It’s really heart warming seeing them helping other people.