Your Favorite Posts of 2012

I just looked back on the stats from this year and found that three blog entries got the most hits from readers. What do these posts have in common? They all address the ABCs of starting to write. Gathering Story Ideas encourages nurses to keep a file of nursing care events they can write about, How to Be a Good Freelancer lists some simple Dos and Don’ts for the independent writer, and Letting Go briefly discusses editing your own work but then realizing when it’s time to, well, let it go.

Framed view along Grand View Point Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

I’m encouraged by the hits here, because the popularity of these posts means my blog readers really do want to write. I don’t have profiles of who is doing the reading, but I can assume most are nurses, based on the title of my blog. Please continue to read, and let me know what other topics might help to nudge you along the writing path in 2013. And Happy New Year!

Little acts of rebellion

A UK Nursing Times headline caught my eye today: “Nurses left to fill gaps in cleaning.” Just seeing it even now makes my blood boil and brings an early clinical nursing experience back to mind. After graduating, I worked the 3-11 shift as a GN and then as an RN, on the telemetry unit of a community hospital. Staffing was sparse, then as now, and we nurses cared for about 12 patients an evening, with the charge nurse doling out meds to all the patients on the floor. But not only nursing was short-staffed, so was housekeeping. And one of the duties I was told I had to do on my shift was empty the patient room garbage bins, because there was not enough housekeeping staff to do so on every floor.

Thus, only a few weeks into my new career, I launched my first rebellion: I told the nursing supervisor that I had not gone to college for a BS, RN, to empty garbage cans. That it was a waste of my education and talent. That she should put her foot down with administration and stand up for the nursing staff. That if they needed more housekeeping staff, then the hospital should hire more, but nurses should not be doing garbage detail on any shift; we should be taking care of patients.

My colleagues were surprised, if not shocked, by my audacity in bucking the system. And keep in mind that baccalaureate education was not, in the early 1970s, viewed as particularly valuable regarding “real-life” nursing experience; the diploma RNs had much more in-depth clinical experience than we did at the time. But to their credit, those other nurses did see my point, they knew I was right, and they didn’t like emptying the garbage much either.

Also to her credit, the nursing supervisor agreed as well. It took several weeks—of leaving those garbage pails out in the halls for the morning housekeeping staff—for our point to be heard, and several weeks of the nursing supervisor saying to administration, “What can I do? They won’t empty the garbage!” The hospital simply couldn’t afford to fire all of us.

Chicago skyline from Michigan City, IN
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

So to my colleagues in the UK, I say: Doesn’t this make your blood boil? State your case calmly but firmly and put a stop to this nonsense. Rescuing other departments from their responsibilities does no one any good in the long run. 

Gathering story ideas

When I tell nurses they have stories to tell, I can practically see these cartoon text bubbles over their heads. Yet ideas are everywhere in your practice. Just saying this evokes stories from my CNS and ER days: a patient with spina bifida who figured out how to keep coming back to the hospital because it was her only means of socialization; the 19-year-old MVA we could not save in ICU; the father who did not make his 8-year-old daughter wear a helmet when he took her out for a ride on his motorcycle; the man buried in a construction accident…you get the idea.

One way to keep track of these stories is to keep a file, whether on your computer, smart device, or on paper. When you think, “This would make a great article,” write it down somewhere and file it. Then dedicate time in your week or month to review those ideas and start writing.

Writing With Political Purpose

Nurses have a well of political power that, for some reason, we rarely tap as a group. That’s partly because of our lack of a unified professional voice. (Think of the splintered representation we have via the American Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and the myriad other unions nurses have elected to participate in.) But if you are a writer (and even if you are not) you do have a political voice, and there's really no excuse not to be heard in the United States. Here’s a small personal example:

University of Virginia library
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

The law in the state of New Jersey does not permit me to purchase a health savings account (one of the less expensive forms of health care insurance) because I am the sole proprietor of my own business. So when Assembly Bill No. 2171—the New Jersey Health Benefit Exchange Act—was due for consideration by Governor Christie, I let him know I wanted him to support it. He did not, but to his credit, he sent me a letter explaining why. I did not buy all of his arguments, however, and I wrote back to tell him so.

Will this particular dialogue with my governor, which I expect may be ongoing, have any effect on my ability to purchase an affordable health care plan? Perhaps not, but imagine if every RN in New Jersey spoke out about this issue or about other issues in health care? And what if nurses all over the country participated in letting their state and national representatives know what they thought about health care reform in general and the importance of nurses and nursing to patient care, community health, and disease prevention in particular?

If you feel uninformed about ways to communicate your views, teach yourself about the political process. If you want to know what is going on in your state regarding health care (or any other issue that concerns you), use the National Conference of State Legislatures website to find out. If you don’t know who your state Congressmen are, you can learn on the US House of Representatives and the US Senate websites.  Then write to them and let them know what you think.

Even a single nursing voice, when gathered with others, can create a powerful chorus. Start singing with your pen! 

Move writing to the top of your to-do list

Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park, WA
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA 

Writing is something very important to me, yet it often falls to the bottom of my list. Sound familiar?

While I have learned that lists keep me organized and help me get things done, sometimes I let them overwhelm me. When that happens, I often refer back to a book I read some years ago: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey. For me, the most useful thing Covey does in this book is to distinguish between what’s important—those things that contribute to one’s long-term goals (the big rocks in the jar, he calls them)—and what is urgent—matters that seem to require immediate action but end up being mere distractions (those pebbles that could really fit in anywhere). At times these two categories converge, but as he points out, most often urgent matters are not the same as important ones.

Think about this when you feel inundated with things to do, and you put aside your goal to write. Then make some decisions about what’s really important in your life. If writing is one of those things, it does not have to be urgent, but it does belong in that important category, which demands that you make some space for it. And it should go on your list first. After all, it's a big rock.

What have you found useful for moving writing to the top of your list? Do you have a tip to share?

Portions of this blog entry first appeared in my column, “Your Space—Taking Care of You,” in the June 2010 issue of AJN eNews.

The tattoo: a story all its own

Virtual body art via Photobooth
by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

I recently completed a news piece on the issue of tattoos and piercings in health care professionals (HCPs). It seems that younger folks entering the health care professions tend to be more inclined to have tattoos than older folks, like Baby Boomers. As younger HCPs care for older patients (those Baby Boomers), what will the repercussions be? While researching the topic, I learned that the workplace issue is not specific to HCPs, but runs the gamut of professions, from chefs to casino employees. Several Web sites offer advice on the etiquette of tattoos, piercings, or both, in the workplace. (See one such site here.) As a nurse, what is your opinion on displaying body art? What should take priority, your freedom of expression or your patients’ feelings and preferences? What is your experience with management on this issue in your workplace? If you display body art, how do your patients react to it? Now there’s a story to tell.

A note to nurses worldwide

Arabian horse sketch by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA***

Although most of the page views for this blog come from the United States, I notice every time I check stats that there are also international viewers. I'd love to hear from nurses of other nations regarding what kind of writing tips you want. Please comment and ask questions, even if your English is not perfect. After all, this is a blog about improving your voice as a nurse, and if you do not use it, it will go silent. And remember, no one writes perfectly all the time.
***A note on the sketch: This is an old drawing I did in grade school, and I'm sure I owe credit to Keith Ward, Harold Eldridge, or one of the other wonderful illustrators of the Black Stallion series, written by Walter Farley. Those books were read and reread by me as a child, and the illustrations spoke to me as loudly as the stories.

Carving out the space to work

Seahorse Sketch
by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

Tips on writing can take you so far; it takes some effort to turn off external distractions and actually sit down to write. In her essay, A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf talks about writing fiction and asks why, over the course of history (specifically Elizabethan times), so much great literature was written by men and so little by women. Her train of thought—distractions included—leads her to explore how women lived during that time period, and, as the picture unfolds for her, she concludes that women needed (and still needed, in Woolf’s own time,) “…rooms of our own…” and “…the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think….” But women, with their multiple tasks and lower salaries imposed by society, lacked the ability and funds to carve out the space and time to write.

Although society has progressed in many ways regarding the status of women, Woolf’s assessment that men write more than women do remains close to the mark today. And even if women have more opportunities to write now, their work is published less than men’s, according to the Web site VIDA. (Look at their 2010 Count, which  shows current information on the percentage of writing done by men and by women that year in various publications.) Woolf’s conclusion that women need a room of their own acknowledges that writing takes concentration, silence, and focus—circumstances rare in daily life. (And I speak of women writers, because, although men are entering nursing in increasing numbers, the nursing profession is still primarily composed of women.) Assuming that most of you reading this blog are nurses, you know the role of multitasking, not only in your jobs, but in your lives, and multitasking is the enemy of writing.

Writing also requires that one have power, the power to stop multitasking and to carve out a space and time to work. Consider that a memoir, for example, is about 35,000 to 40,000 words in length (go to any book on Amazon.com and look at “text stats”). If you wrote just 100 words every day, by the end of the year you would have a book…. “No time!” you may be saying, “for even 100 words a day, and no space to write in. You just don’t understand.” To that I would ask “Do you want to write, or not?” If so—and whether you are a man or a woman—use your power, your desire, and the resources at hand, and find the space and time to do it. 

Blogging

Stone Harbor beach in winter
Photo by Gail M. Pfeifer, RN, MA

Publishing your words is no longer for print only, but several venues offer you the opportunity to share your thoughts. Social media sites, like Facebook or Twitter, are popular, but think about blogging if you want to say something with any depth. Starting your own blog is one option, but there are many sites that allow you to say what you think about nursing issues or other topics. I recommend that, if you really want a career in publishing (or if you just want respect for your written word), take some time to construct a cogent comment to any posts. Although I tend to keep my blog posts here, I do occasionally blog on AJN’s Off the Charts. Take a look at the link for some of my samples, and comment to those or others that you will find in the "followed" blog list at the AJN site. If you want tips on starting your own blog or how to find blogs that might interest you, contact me here. I'll be happy to help. Oh, and Happy New Year!