The documents on this page are the original materials behind my autoethnography about a 50-year career in nursing.
I’m sharing them for transparency and historical context—so readers, students, and researchers can see the primary sources for themselves.
I’ll continue adding more snapshots over time.
Click any item to download the PDF.
These photographs were taken during my first nursing position in 1974 in NYC.
They reflect the physical environment in which care was delivered—an environment that shaped not only patient outcomes, but the lived experience of nurses.
The medication cart, had a drawer for each patient. The pharmacist would fill it every day. But if drugs were needed at other times, the machine behind the cart was like a vending machine. We had a card we inserted that allowed us to choose what med we needed. It was then dropped at the bottom - just like a vending machine! It was efficient in its own way—but also a reminder of how care was structured, and how little room there was for anything beyond the immediate task.
My clinical practice was rarely typical. When I graduated from my NP program at the University of Rochester in 1982 under Dean Ford, there were
no laws formally recognizing nurse practitioner practice.
In some ways, that absence of regulation gave me room to innovate. The fuller stories behind these snapshots are told in
my autoethnography, featured on the Home page.
A move to Minnesota created a new set of challenges and opportunities. Nurse practitioners could practice, but only through formal
collaborative agreements with supervising physicians.
I was fortunate to work with physicians who recognized the potential of advanced nursing practice. However, my goal was not to build a medical practice—it was to create one grounded in nursing philosophy and care.
During this period, I secured the first managed care contract for a nurse practitioner in Minnesota and developed several innovative programs for women’s health. The fuller narrative of this work is described in my autoethnography on the Home page.
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