nurse – Health Story Hub

Between the Heartbeats: Poetry & Prose by Nurses

This collection of writing includes a diverse range of international voices. They address a variety of experiences of care, including in-patient, out-patient and home care. As the title indicates, the collection spans poetry, brief stories, and reflections, all previously published elsewhere and collected here. In the Foreward, Joanne Trautman Banks observes that the works addresses not only personal experience but also reflections on the limitations of the profession.

Taking Turns

Taking Turns is a graphic novel that explores HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 at the Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago during the peak of the AIDS epidemic. Through archival records, oral histories, and MK Czerwiec's first-hand experiences as a nurse on the ward, the novel sheds light on the challenges and resilience of the community during this critical period. With simple illustrations and a practical four-panel format, "Taking Turns" delivers a direct and accessible narrative, offering readers an opportunity to not only absorb the history easily, but prompting empathetic reflection for each member of the community – patients, families, and medical staff. This novel could provoke discussions about caregiver narratives, and the efficacy of graphic novels in communicating narrative.