When the Nurse Becomes a Patient: A Story in Words and Images

Home Find Books About Contact Us What We do Journals Civil War History Ohio History Ordering Information Resources For Authors For Resellers Sales Reps Policies Support the Press Make a Donation Catalog Newsroom Events Home ? Series ? Literature & Medicine ? When the Nurse Becomes a Patient Davis cover April 2015, 32 ppCloth, $19.95tISBN 978-1-60635-230-4 ePubISBN 978-1-63101-120-7 ePDFISBN 978-1-63101-121-4 Shipping Status: Preorder Note: All eBooks are 15% off the print book price. Courtesy of our partner, Atlas Books Call (419) 281-1802 to order by phone.Related Titles Davis_C-hr The Heart's Truth Schaefer Book Cover The Poetry of Nursing DasGupta Book Cover Stories of Illness and HealingWhen the Nurse Becomes a PatientA Story in Words and ImagesLiterature & Medicine, MedicineCortney Davis Description AuthorPaintings and reflections that share a nurse's own experience of illnessIn the summer of 2013, Cortney Davis, a nurse practitioner and author who often writes about her interactions with patients, underwent routine one-day surgery. A surgical mishap led to a series of life-altering and life-threatening complications, resulting in two prolonged hospital stays and a lengthy recovery. During twenty-six days in the hospital, Davis experienced how suddenly a caregiver can become a care receiver and what it's like to be "on the other side of the sickbed." As a nurse, she was accustomed to suffering and to the empathy such witnessing can evoke, but as a patient she learned new and transforming lessons in pain, fear, loneliness, abandonment, and dependency; in the fragility of health and life; in the necessity of family support; and, ultimately, in the importance of gratitude.Once at home, Davis wanted to respond to her illness creatively through her writing, but the details seemed too intense, too raw for words. As her recovery progressed, she found release in painting, discovering an immediate connection between heart and hand, between memory and canvas. In a series of twelve paintings, she reenvisioned episodes of her illness, moments that remained and replayed in her consciousness, ultimately providing an education in health care more resonant and more authentic than what she had found in nursing textbooks.