The American Nurse Project Shines Light on the Power of Nursing
By Megan Murdock Krischke, contributor
October 16, 2013 - “For me, the question is what do [nurses] know that I don’t know? What do they know about humanity? And what can I learn from them?” remarked Carolyn Jones, author, director and photographer for The American Nurse Project (ANP) on a video clip on the project’s website.
Jones had learned how much care and support nurses can give to patients during her own battle with breast cancer--a travel nurse had helped her face the disease and the difficult treatment that was required to overcome it. Her personal experience made her even more excited to take on this creative project when Rhonda Collins, MSN, RN, came calling.
“I was looking for a way to do something different and just make the general public aware that our company was here in the U.S.,” explained Collins, vice president and business manager for infusion technology for Fresenius Kabi USA, of the conception of the ANP. “We could have spent all that money on marketing nonsense. I wanted to do something that was for the greater good, something that would ground us as a company and that wasn’t about us. Since nurses are the primary users of our products, I thought we should highlight nurses.”
“I was introduced to Carolyn because of her previous work on Living Proof: Courage in the Face of AIDS. She conceived the idea of the black and white photos and the interviews and combining media,” Collins continued.
“When I make a book, I like to shine a light on people who are doing extraordinary things. When Rhonda asked me to do this project, it was still fresh in my mind that I had a nurse who cared for me during breast cancer and chemo--how, out of everybody, she was the one who got me through when it was really scary,” reflected Jones. “Once I interviewed one nurse, I was completely hooked. It was evident I had entered a very rich world.”
The American Nurse book, a collection of photos and interviews of 75 nurses from across the country, was published last year. Yet the project continues. Currently, Jones is working on creating a film that follows five nurses in distinct nursing roles as they innovate, provide care, and touch lives.
“I’m hoping the film can reach out to the public and show not only what nurses can do for people, but also that when we care for others, it heals us,” stated Jones. “I’m not expecting that everyone who sees the film becomes a nurse, but I hope they would see the benefits of caring for others. There are qualities nurses have that we all could gain from.”
“I take the viewer over the threshold into the world of nursing: they see a baby being born, they are present for the end of a patient’s life and witness some other intimate nursing moments presented in a way that they can be astounded by what nurses are actually doing,” she added.
The ANP is continuing to expand the content on their website and recently traveled to Portland for the Oregon Center for Nursing’s (OCN) annual fundraising breakfast.
Collins addressed the over 250 attendees and presented the videos and photographs that Jones had captured of the Oregon nurses who were included in the project.
“The theme of this year’s breakfast was the ‘Many Faces of Nursing,’” said Kelley Ilic, operations manager for the Oregon Center for Nursing. “We contacted the ANP because we had seen their book and website and it resonated with something we are always saying: that nursing takes many forms and exists in many ways in our community, and the impact nurses are making every day gets overlooked--but there are extraordinary things going on.”
The program highlighted three nurses involved in work that reflects particular aspects of Oregon:
Leda Garside, RN, MBA, provides healthcare for migrant workers by partnering with their employers and bringing a mobile clinic to the fields where they are working.
“She is doing innovative work and serving a segment of our community that is often overlooked,” Ilic commented.
Judy Andersen, RN, MSN, is a teacher with the Workforce Improvement with Immigrant Nurses program that works with individuals who worked as nurses before immigrating to the United States. The program helps them to prepare for the NCLEX and introduces them to the U.S. health system.
“The great thing about this profile is that it wasn’t just about Judy,” Ilic added. “It came to be about her graduates who are working in our community, and working with their own immigrant communities. These nurses bring a wealth of cultural knowledge and ties to the community into their work.”
Shannon Weybright, RN, works with at-risk youth in a school-based health clinic in a rural Oregon town hard hit by the downturn in the economy and in the lumber industry on which it was founded.
“It is great to have nurses from the Pacific Northwest represented in the ANP and getting attention from across the nation,” Illic said. “It serves as a good reminder to the nurses in our community, who often think they are just doing their jobs. But what they are doing is actually amazing and valuable and it is good to celebrate that--to rally around it and celebrate.”
When asked if she had anything in particular she’d like to say to travel nurses, Jones responded, “The nurse who was so important to me, my chemo nurse, was a travel nurse. The opportunity to be in different places and to experience different issues people are dealing with adds to a nurse’s ability to understand the universalities that all people have. You gain an even better understanding of how people are put together, that care ultimately looks the same no matter the circumstances. What an incredible experience. Travel is one of the best educations a person can have.”
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