FAQS HIT THE MARK
I wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed the FAQs articles. As a hospital chaplain, I find these short pieces helpful. I have used them in educating our hospital staff regarding spiritual care.
Not being a nurse some of the other articles are not up my alley, but I read them and find good things to help me be a better chaplain.
Lorena Young Bowers
Clearlake, CA
PNEUMONIC OR MNEMONIC
As usual, I read your latest issue (summer) cover to cover, and found it well worth my time. I enjoyed a special language-lover's smile over Schoonover-Shoffner's choice of words in the book review of A Biblically Based Model of Cultural Competence. The use of the approximate homonym of pneumonic (relating to the lungs) for mnemonic (a memory aid) is one a nurse can really appreciate.
Abigail Nobel
Burnips, MI
Thank you for pointing out my error. I am trying to write right while offering fair faire to our readers. - The Editor
REVERSE DISCRIMINATION
Eight years ago, I enrolled in the nursing program at a local college. There were eighty students at orientation, three men. There we discovered that everyone (except the men) had received notice regarding the need for a prerequisite course. Initially I thought this was a mistake. However, two nursing colleagues informed me that the dean of the program did not believe in male nurses.
In spite of circumstances, I enrolled and passed my medical terminology class. The instructor, who taught anatomy and physiology classes encouraged me to enroll concurrently with the prerequisite class. I petitioned for a waiver with the instructor's support and advocacy of my instructor. The dean refused and made it clear that she did not see men as qualified candidates for nursing.
I left the school and enrolled in an EMT program. I completed that program and am now competent to work in roles previously reserved for nurses. In addition, I train new nursing staff, conduct health education for patients and serve as a guest speaker for nursing students at a private college.
I continue to encounter those who have attended the first school and find it still has a reputation for being less than supportive of men. I encounter nurses who make it plain they do not like men as care providers. That is a shame. Men make excellent nurses.
Prejudice against men in nursing runs far deeper than patients mistaking male nurses for doctors. It is deep in the heart of many of those in positions of authority in nursing. Until attitudes and behaviors are changed there will continue to be hostility toward men as nurses. Men will continue to avoid nursing as a career, even if they feel called. I applaud you for your willingness to speak on this issue [Spring 2006]. At age fifty it won't help me but will, I hope, help those younger know the rewards of a vocation dedicated to helping others.
Craig Ott
Inver Grove, MN
URGENT NEED FOR NURSES
Mercy Ships is in immediate need of additional volunteer nurses to fill vacancies in the Ghana field service surgical calendar. Qualified candidates should contact the Human Resources Office at the Mercy Ships International Center in Garden Valley, Texas, for more information. Contact: Mercy Ships Human Resources, [email protected], http://www.mercyships.org or 800-772-SHIP (US only).
CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS
JCN is looking for manuscripts on topics that will be addressed in upcoming journal issues, along with other timely topics in nursing, healthcare mission, healthcare disparities, and parish nursing. Information for Authors can be found online at http://ncf.intervarsity.org/jcn/guidelines.html.