Table Of Content

Tlie Lantern The Journal of Nursing Stories Winter 2010, Inaugural Edition Editorial Advisory Board Editor-in-Chief RADM Karen A. Flaherty, NC, USN CDR Michele Kane, PhD, RN RDML Cindy Dullea, NC, USN CAPT Kathleen Pierce, NC, USN Managing Editor CAPT Patrice Bibeau, NC, USN Ms. Loretta Aiken, MSN, RN Editorial Board Assistant Editor Ms. Barbara Cilento, MSN, M.Ed, RN Mr. Andre B. Sobocinski CAPT (Ret) Susan Dionne, MSN, RN Mr. Jan K. Herman CDR Andrea Parodi, PhD, RN Mission of The Lantern F or nearly 25 years, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) has actively sought out the memo ries of Navy and civilian medical/nursing personnel. Inspired by this project, the Navy Nurse Corps has conducted over 500 oral history interviews with Nurse Corps officers. A few of these oral histories pre-date World War II, but the majority of these stories are of the women who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. These captured voices not only add to the fabric of the Navy Nurse Corps' heritage, but remind us of the undeniable connection between our past, present and future. It is the mission of this journal to present the stories of the triumph of nursing spirit and to impress the importance of sharing the accumulated wisdom, beliefs, and values. The Lantern will offer a path of discovery of what we know as nurses: that nurses are always prepared for the unknown. A mundane day can suddenly change. One minute the world is right and the next everything can go haywire. You may be caught up in a moment oftime, or in an overwhelming event that can shape your very ex istence. But with this fact of life we see the one constant, whether it is on the front-lines in World War I, aboard hospital ships in World War II or Korea, or serving stateside in the present wars, nurses are always there to hold a hand of a casualty, reach out to struggling families, and to give words of encouragement to those in need. The Lantern owes its name to Florence Nightingale, the emblem of the nursing profession. In her stories of service in the Crimean War we can see our own stories of what it is to be the 21st century Nightingales. The intent of this journal is to showcase the eternal story of the nurse and to shed light on the fact that as caregivers you are not alone. These stories are as eternal as the flame that burns within The Lantern. The Lantern will be published quarterly and be available to anyone interested. CDR Michele Kane, NC, USN National Naval Medical Center 8901 Wisconsin Avenue Bethesda, MD 20889-5600 ATTN: The Lantern Contents Message from the Admiral Pagel Articles: Storytelling and The Lantern Page3 by Loretta Aiken, MSN, RN The Girl Next Door (Vietnam Combat Nurse) Page9 by "Country Joe" McDonald From Post-It to Twitter Page 12 by Barbara Cilento, MSN, M.Ed, RN Defining Moments Page 13 by Diana Dwan Poole, RN "Sharkbait!" Page 15 by LTJG Madge Crouch, NC, USN (Ret.) Departments: Whispers from the Past: Clara Barton Speaks Page8 Lantern Slides: A Navy Nurse Pictorial PagelO Source Material Page 16 Cover image: "Lady with the lamp" Florence Nightingale (1810-1910) at the Scutari Hospital in the Crimean War. ©Bettmann/CORBIS 1 Message :from tlie ..'A.dmira{ T he lantern is a traditional symbol and a specter of the timeless tradition of nursing. The lantern's light reminds every nurse of the eternal mission that blazes within each of us and the passion we have for our patients. Like its namesake, The Lantern is the unifying symbol for nursing experience, hope, and inspiration. It offers a forum for today's nurses to share their personal accounts of what it is like to be a nurse working for today's Navy. The experiences that are born from war are universal. These stories will al low the light of nursing to forever illuminate the timeless messages of the nurse's connec tion to their patients and the process of heal ing for all. The richness of our history is only as complete as the stories that are captured. I look forward to reading your stories in future editions of The Lantern. Let's keep the light burning. RADM Karen Flaherty 2 The Lantern Tlie STORYTELLING AND Lantern By Loretta Aiken, MSN, RN National Naval Medical Center "This lamp ...w as a symbol of all Florence Nightingale stood for, comfort and kindness and gentleness and courage, and an unswerving devotion to duty. Perhaps deep down, she knew even then that the light from it would go on shining far into the future." - From A Lamp for Elizabeth by Kathleen O'Farrell W hat do the words "sto rebuild team spirit, or wrap up rytelling" and "lantern" something in a way that is non have in common? Both threatening, constructive, while are ordinary words that we use in at the same time serving as enter daily conversations. We do not tainment. Stories can be funny readily associate the two words events that make us laugh or can together, but if we add the word describe hard lessons learned in a "Nightingale," then the words are comical way. They can have good at once linked and the reader un outcomes against all odds, or can derstands that we are telling a story simply illustrate a life lesson. Pas about nursing. sages of time sweep things away to Storytelling is the oldest form different places and different centu of human communication. As a ries, but history is lost forever if no time honored practice it unites all one transforms their thoughts and generations and all cultures of the perspective of events into words. world. A story offers a personal, Stories are great pastimes. They "Antique Lanterns" courtesy of firsthand expression of experience; can entertain us with tales of love, The Chattanooga Auction House it is an interpretation of a real event romance, adventure or exotic plac (11ttp://www.thechattanoogaa11ctionho11se.com) presented as a narrative. It is also a es. Stories can be packaged as long thought-sharing process of accu sagas that are drawn out over many effects, or they can help provide a mulated wisdom, beliefs, and val tellings, or they can be simple basis for personal ethics, morals, ues that connects person to person parables about life lessons. Each and life plans. Stories can be used and soul to soul. A story explains of us uses our own imagination to as a warning, a prediction of human how things are done, why they interact with the story characters, nature, and/or can inspire self and are done, and describes roles and and that makes us think of what we others to do great deeds. Stories purpose. It also connects people to would do in similar circumstances. pass down information about any past, present, and future events, and Think of bestselling novels that thing from human frailties, or fear, helps listeners anticipate possible capture our mind so much we can't to heroic epics about war. Stories consequences to actions. Stories seem to put them down. can tell of events so horrible that a are important because they provide A story is also a way of passing person can suffer anxiety for the re personal archives of valuable infor information from one generation mainder of his or her life by merely mation about values, successes, and to another, a means of teach- being a participant, or a story can practices. ing lessons to children, students, just as easily explain how someone Everyone loves a good story and people of the same profession, or overcame the event and went on to it is hard to dispute the authentic anyone reading it. Stories can be have a meaningful life as a result ity of subjective truths imbued in a used to highlight good behavior in of the experience. Telling a good good story. Stories can offer ways the worst of circumstances, point story is an art that can captivate an to digest news, debrief, renew, out bad behavior and its rippling audience, or it can just as easily be Winter 2010 3 an inspiration for future decision turned out to be a fascinating snap She still has books written about making choices. A story is simply a shot of events that had occurred, her, has college nursing programs personal narrative about the when, how the nurse had coped and what called "Nightingale Schools," and what, where, and how events hap she/he thought about afterwards. she still is considered the Mother pened. Nurses wrote poignant accounts of Modem Nursing. Not only that, Stories about war or tales of of what had taken place during just countless nursing students over the great feats in battle have been a few moments in their lives, and last century have probably written around from the beginning of civi the readers had astounding infor more pages about her than any oth lization. Was Homer a historian or mation from brief recollections of er woman in history. Who among just a teller of tall tales? Did Hel personal experiences. The reaction us does not remember staying up en's face really launch a thousand of the nurses reading the stories into the wee hours of the night ships, or did her famous beauty was the actual foundation for plan writing papers about her theories simply grow to mythic proportions ning this journal in order to capture of what nurses should study, how with time? Think of the Bible and the individual nursing war stories we should dress, and what behav all the war stories and great battles for future generations. ior is appropriate? Remember the mentioned in it. All children and If we read a story about a nurse Nightingale Pledge which was the even adults identify with "Once 150 years ago, we immediately nursing roadmap for so many of us upon a time," and we immediately think about long dresses, corsets, in years past? Oh yes, did I men think of the countless hours spent never-ending hours spent cooking, tion she wrote stories about being a with childhood bedtime stories and cleaning, and caring for the sick, combat nurse? fairy tales. Stories are also an ideal not to mention not being recog Let's take a quick look at the sto way for nurses to pass their own nized as a true professional mem ry of Florence Nightingale and see personal histories or experiences ber of the health care team. Can why she was such a unique person to their children, grandchildren, any of you imagine a military hos of her time: Miss Nightingale was and future readers. By the same pital without sanitation, no elec born into an affluent family who token, young nurses love to know tricity or running water, little or no had money, power, and status. She what other nurses faced in times general anesthesia for complicated was well educated, fluent in several of turmoil or trouble, and how the battle injuries and amputations, languages, a prolific writer and nurses overcame their obstacles. and only whiskey for medication? math whiz, and would have been Stories can help nurses share their Couple that with long hours, long a great catch for some likeminded personal experiences and provide a wars, and the fear and anxiety of nobleman. Instead of marrying a means of encouragement and sup being on a battlefield with incom man of her families 's choosing, port for others who find themselves ing mortar attacks, communicable she shocked them by wanting to in similar circumstances. Stories diseases, endless streams of war be a nurse. According to the story, can be current, historic, or ageless casualties, plus having to deal she undertook her own destiny in foundation. with the open hostility from men by ignoring her mother's pleas to About two years ago, CAPT and medical officers who consider marry a man of means. Florence Susan Dionne (USN, Ret.) sent nurses to be non-professional, sub set her mind on nursing and noth an email to the nursing staff at the servient handmaidens. ing was going to deter her from her National Naval Medical Center in Most people, especially nurses, "calling." As the story goes, she Bethesda asking us to write down know something about Florence studied hard and learned all she our memories of working with the Nightingale and how she found could about nursing of that time. wounded warriors of the current her niche in history. She was an She devoutly believed that nursing Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Once English nurse who started a nursing was as art as well as a science, and the email string started, nurse after school and subsequently helped de used scientific principles and ad nurse added brief accounts of what fine nursing tradition. Even though vanced thinking on evidence-based each remembered about certain she has been dead for 99 years, her practice to improve conditions in events, what they had seen, and name still resonates through the hospitals and clinics caring for the how it affected them personally. It nursing service and popular culture. poor. It was her success and fame 4 The Lantern facilities were limited. The hospi Miss Nightingale and her combat tal itself had deplorable conditions nurses would not be successful in with practically no sanitation, sew overcoming these insurmountable ers and chamber pots overflowing, odds to care for the war wounded. no ventilation, severe overcrowd Needless to say, the naysayers were ing, limited medications, and mas not familiar with the stamina and sive infections. Soldiers not only fortitude of a group of nurses on suffered from combat injuries but a mission. Florence Nightingale were also gravely ill from infec and her nurses cared for and com tions that included typhus, typhoid, forted injured soldiers, cleaned and dysentery. The hospital lacked the wards, improved the ventila other facilities including an ad tion and sewers, and attended the equate water supply, had little or no bedsides of the dying. As busy as heat in some areas, and was op she was, she still took the time to pressively hot in other parts. Blood, write about her struggles and how pus, and human excrement covered she and her team brought about the floors. change. She wrote about lessons One would think if conditions learned, and about human nature were this bad, any help would be in the worst of circumstances, and Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910), appreciated-but this was not the most of all about what it was like to British nurse and hospital reformer case! Instead, Florence and her be a combat nurse, as well as what at Scutari hospital during the Crime nurses faced incredible hardships she thought, and how her nurses an war. because of their gender, met with reacted. She knew change was Photo by General Photographic Agency/ hostility from military officers and desperately needed, so Florence re Getty Images physicians, and were overwhelmed newed her belief that she had been in this area that eventually led to with filth and disease. The nurses' "called" to nursing, and became the her unlikely appointment in Turkey quarters were rat and flea infested change agent herself. during the Crimean War. hovels without beds or cots to By using all her personal and Wow, we wonder this far into sleep on. The nurses had practi family influence, not to mention the story what is going to happen cally no supplies to work with, the press, she really brought about to her in the war zone and will she and lacked medications to help change to battlefield hospitals. buckle under the pressure! What the raging infections and massive What Florence accomplished can would we do in her place and how injuries. They also had no way to only be likened to a modem fe would we do it? So the next part reiieve the severe pain of gunshot male Rambo, GI Jane, or Wonder of the story finds Miss Nightingale wounds, amputations, and screams Woman. She was a true to life, in a strange land, in the middle of a of young men dying in the prime of red blooded woman (Nurse) who war, and with very few people who life. As if all this wasn't enough, undertook a task so incredible that even wanted to be bothered with Miss Nightingale was faced with it is almost inconceivable that it her and her noble cause. constantly being a role model to could have been done. But some In 1854, Florence and 38 nurses the women who had accompanied how she prevailed and made do she had trained set out to work in a her in to the combat zone. These with what she had. She and her British field hospital in a war zone nurses were homesick; some were nurses cared for and comforted in Scutari, Turkey. Upon arrival, afraid of their own possible inju injured soldiers and undertook they immediately saw the disgrace ries, and others actually did con the unending tasks of running an ful condition of the hospital. The tract some of the infections and dis overcrowded and understaffed wounded British soldiers were get eases like soldiers had. (Not unlike battlefield hospital. Many people ting minimal care from exhausted, current nurses in combat zones). had different ideas of the com poorly prepared medical officers, Many people (e specially men) plicated tasks at hand, but nurses the food was scarce, and cooking sneered at our heroine and believed basically watched over the sick and Winter 2010 5 did what they could to relieve the accomplishments. Florence be nursing now. Offering a drink, human misery of war. Florence came a national hero and was most putting an extra blanket on, hold went about caring for the sick and frequently introduced as "The lady ing a hand, or listening to a young wounded, and kept watch at night. with the lamp." She was the object soldier's cry is still very much part She walked through the hospi- of songs, poems, books, sonnets, of nursing today and it can be done tal corridors in the dark, making stage plays, newspapers, had her in a field hospital, on a medievac rounds with a small lamp or lantern picture on money, and made the plane, or at one of the big military to see well enough to give a drink rounds of government agencies to or veterans' hospitals who receive of water, cover with a blanket, or promote her cause. She became a war wounded. Over a century and murmur English words to men who patron of orphanages, poor women, a half has passed since the image were shedding their life's blood on and women in general, and most of a lone nurse walked in the dark foreign soil. little girls throughout the world with a small lantern in hand, but Soon soldiers began to tell sto knew about what Florence had ac the story is just as real today as it ries of a lady with the lantern who complished for womankind. was then. Just ask any of our cur had visited them during the night. The Times in England wrote: rent wounded warriors. Many thought she was an angel "She is a 'Ministering angel' We let our imaginations run and or maybe a ghost, others thought without any exaggeration in these think more about the story of the the nurse was a specter of a dead hospitals, and as her slender form nurse walking with a little lantern mother or sister who had come to glides quietly along each corridor, in the long ago battlefield hospital. help one cross over to the afterlife, every poor fellow's face softens Do you wonder what went through while others simply took her as a with gratitude with the sight of her. her mind? Do you feel her fear? woman with some type of lantern When all the medical officers have Can you imagine her despair? Was who came to check on them. The retired for the night and silence she ill, was she homesick, did legend of the lone woman going and darkness have settled down she think of friends and family at from soldier to soldier was part fact upon those miles of prostrate sick, home, was she looking for anyone and part lore, and it was one of the she may be observed alone, with a she knew among the battle wound great human nature war stories that little lamp in her hand, making her ed? How did she cope with loneli took root and endeared nurses to solitary rounds." ness, hopelessness, and the scope soldiers and families on the home In 1857, Henry Wadsworth of what she was a part of? Did she front. Longfellow's poem "Santa Filom think herself a historical figure in a Florence Nightingale gained the ena" contained: moment in time, an angel of mercy, name "Lady with the Lamp" dur or was she angry or depressed by ing the Crimean War and became Lo! In that hour of misery her circumstances? the darling of the press. Many A lady with a lamp I see All of these questions are stories people thought her as popular as Pass through the glimmering gloom, unto themselves but they spark our Queen Victoria, and she became a Andf lit from room to room. imagination and make us wonder legend in her own time. She also about that long ago nurse who was knew the advantages of appealing Again, is there any nurse among living in a nightmare called a war to the public and took pen in hand us who can't identify with the zone. The only way we would ac to write profusely of her work and simple words of this story now? tually know what she was thinking her uphill battles for the good of Maybe now we don't walk around was if she recorded her thoughts the poor soldiers who were fighting on our rounds with a bare candle, and passed them along its way into for England, as well as the changes lamp, or lantern, but we do make history. And what phrases come she brought to a nation by reform rounds with a flashlight in hand. to mind now when we talk about ing hospitals and educating nurses We walk through the wards at Florence and her lantern? "See- based on solidly scientific founda night and shine a little light to do ing the light," "Light at the end of tions. pretty much what Miss Nightingale the tunnel," "Light in the eyes," Others took up her cause and did 150 years ago. It was called "Coming back to the light," "Going wrote about her good deeds and nursing then and it is still called toward the light," "Coming back 6 The Lantern from the dark," "Angel of light" suffered during the Crimean War. and sometimes I look at it and or most simply "Angel of Mercy." Each new generation of nurses think over my long nursing career Every day in hospitals we hear all in later wars brought changes that that has spanned three wars. Who these terms in normal conversa improved battlefield medicine and would have ever thought four de tions but most of us never associate combat nursing. The "Lantern" cades ago that I would have spent the words with that lady that car was named in honor of Florence my entire nursing career working ried a lantern and lit her way down Nightingale, but it is also a guiding with war wounded and veterans? I the long winding road of nursing light to nurses today, just as it was wouldn't trade my experiences for history. then. The passage of time changes anything on earth but after seeing Over the years, Florence Night a lot of things but some ideas and countless battle injuries and three ingale became the "Mother of practices stay the same year after generations of war injured, I have Modem Nursing" and founded year. These are not bad things be a special place in my heart for nursing as a profession. Even cause they are called traditions and Florence and her small light. She though she was not considered still help to make up the very soul is still an inspiration to nurses, and exactly a feminist of modem times, of the nursing profession. we salute you "Dear Florence" for she certainly helped make nursing Forty-three years ago, I was what your lantern symbolizes. ■ a respected vocation and signifi given a Nightingale lamp during cantly contributed to professional my own Capping Ceremony in a nursing in military service world small hospital-based diploma nurs wide. Historians have written ing program in Ohio. As student fondly of her accomplishments, nurses, we had learned the his and she has firmly established her torical significance of the lantern rightful place among the world's and all of us stood so proudly to most influential women. She is recite the Nightingale Pledge in the considered almost saint like, and candlelight. I thought of my world little girls still play with Florence at that time and how the United Nightingale dolls. The lamp itself States was in the middle of the has become a universal symbol for Vietnam War. nursing and for over 100 years, At 18 years old, I asked myself nurses have received small lamps if I had the courage to stand in a in capping ceremonies or gradua combat zone and give comfort to tion from nursing schools world fellow Americans dying in battle. wide. Just the thought scared me because As a result of her storytelling and I could imagine how anyone car writing skills, Miss Nightingale rying a lantern might become a went on to start a dynasty for nurs target. Those thoughts were just ing, opened a nursing school, and fleeting because I already knew the wrote for the rest of her life about likelihood of me ever leaving my being a change agent. It is from small town was almost nonexistent. her many works we know how des War nursing was for the strong at perate and desolate combat nursing heart and somehow I just couldn't could be then, but it is also a story see myself ever facing what Flor about the triumph of a woman who ence Nightingale had done so many set out to seek fulfillment in a pro generations before me. Well, life fession that she helped create. We never seems to work out the way also know from other nurses writ we plan it and mine didn't either ing for the next 100 years that they but that's another story. too suffered many of the hardships My Nightingale lamp has been Miss Nightingale and her nurses on my bedside table all these years Winter 2010 7 WHISPERS FROM THE PAST: CLARA BARTON SPEAKS s Of the near legions off amous Civil War nurses, Clara Barton name is perhaps best known. Throughout the war she cared for many wounded soldier and sailor, distributed medical supplies, and organized a bureau of records that lead to the identification of many "lost" soldiers killed in action. We know Miss Barton through histories oft he war, but also through her own writings. Clara Barton lived during a literate time in America in which people wrote copious letters and maintained journals that recorded their thoughts and feelings. Today, web portals like Google Books have opened up these time capsules ofe xperience for those unable to s visit a research library or archives. Many ofB arton writings on the development oft he nursing service, and the experiences oft he individual nurses can even be found through a simple internet search. On one website there is a remarkable 90-page document detailing her experiences as a nurse and describing the aftermath of a battle which we have excerpted below. T he most fearful scene was reserved for the night. I have said that the ground was littered with dry hay. .. and that we had only 2 lanterns. But there were plenty of candles ... The wounded were lain so closely that it was impossible to move about in the dark. The slight est misstep brought a torrent of groans from some poor mangled fellow in your path. Consequently there were scores of persons of every grade from the careful man of God who walked with a prayer upon his lips to the careless driver, hunting for his lost whip, each wandering about among this hay with an open flaming Clara Barton, Circa 1865 candle in his hand. National Archives Photographic Collection The slightest accident, the mere dropping of a light, would have hay and left them to their rest. should pass away. enveloped in flames this whole The slight naked chest of a fair "And you dont know me" he said mass of helpless men. haired lad caught my eye, and at length-"! am Charley Hamil How we watched and plead, and dropping down beside him, I bent ton, who used to carry your satchel cautioned, as we worked, and wept low to draw the remmant of his home from school." that night. tom blows about him. When, with My faithful pupil-poor Char How we put socks and slippers a quick cry, he threw his left-arm ley! That mangled right arm will on their cold damp feet-wrapped across my neck, and wept like a never carry a satchel again. ■ blankets and quilts about them child at his mothers knee. and when we had no longer these I took his head in my hands and to give how we covered them in the held it until his great burst of grief 8 The Lantern