Nurse Stories

An Interactive Website

If Desmond Tutu is right, and nursing lies at the “very heart of humankind’s commitment to caring for one another,” than what does an increased need for nurses and a current global shortage mean to us as a society? Nurses play an essential role in our society, though the profession remains undervalued and misunderstood. The general public is unaware of the breadth of the profession and the broader social utility nursing provides. Consumers of health care must understand how the presence of nurses impacts the quality of care they, their employees, their family and their neighbors receive. With healthcare reform at the forefront of political dialogue, this is an opportune moment to raise awareness about the importance of nursing and begin to address some of the challenges the nursing profession, and by extension our entire healthcare system, currently faces.

‘Nurse Stories’ is a series of 1-2 minute vignettes of to be featured on an interactive website that will also provide a forum for community discussion and reaction. Told by nurses of varied backgrounds, these stories run the gamut from joyful to heart-wrenching, tragic to hopeful, and funny to poignant- but in each case, they serve to illuminate some aspect of the way in which healthcare functions in our society. We believe that the simplicity of this approach will allow the power of the stories to stand on their own and resonate on a profoundly human level, while near-universal access to new media will allow the information to travel quickly and expansively.

It is our sincere hope that these stories will serve as a welcome alternative to the often-counterproductive overly politicized discussions that tend to dominate mainstream media outlets, and encourage audiences to begin to think about these critical issues from a fresh perspective. The website will not only serve as an educational resource, but as an opportunity for the public to network and share their own stories.

Work in Progress