Quotable Quote: "Is there any character in fiction that could answer to the ideal nurse? There may be, but those we have met are bruised and dwarfed in some way?" Mary Morgan 

MY THOUGHTS: Fiction takes a piece of reality and remolds and reshapes it as it wants. That is the freedom of literature, specifically fiction. The ugly portrayals of nurses in literature are not ideal because they are not what we envision nurses to be based on today's standards. However, a point to keep in mind- there is no right or wrong in the world of fiction. While we can compare the 'reality' depicted in fiction with the reality of the real world, that's as far as we can go as readers. Fiction is fiction for a reason- it's a practice of creative expression and recreation. It is okay to search for inspiration from literature, but to ask that it makes an exact rendering of reality is a bit too much.  

Quotable Quote: "Nurses need to develop skills and strategies to increase their comprehensive use of language—that is, their ability to exploit the full range of language, including metaphor and rhetoric, as tools to convey social, cultural, and ethical meaning and to express emotion." Sandra Young

My Thoughts:  Writing is the least of the concerns for nurses, especially those in hectic units. I can attest to this based on personal experience. For instance, a bedside nurse in a cardiac unit has 1001 tasks piled on her/his shoulders within a 12-hour shift- from prepping the patient for surgery to ensuring no part is wrong or amiss in the care of the patient. With such a task-oriented approach to bedside nursing, writing like a seasoned writer is at the bottom of the list of priorities. That is the hard truth. However,  setting writing aside, if there is one lesson from creative writing that nurses should bring to the 'floor,' it is to communicate to patients as humanly as possible. Patients respond best to a storytelling interaction that reflects their concerns, interests, and emotions. They want to feel heard, seen, and listened to. The patient's story is not just the sickness; it also includes everything that is part of his or her person.