Contributor – Nicole DePace MS, APRN, GNP-BC, ACHPN

 In “Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change the World,” journalist Sarah DiGregorio explores what it means to be a nurse, examining the past and present with a hopeful gaze toward the future. This book is about what it means to be a nurse, who gets to be called a nurse, how one becomes a nurse, and most importantly, it shines a light on all the things that nurses do—all the while contending with and holding space for the radical, history-making, necessary, life-changing work and the failures and shortcomings of the nursing discipline. In reading this book, what resonates is that love does not require perfection. DiGregorio depicts the iterative practice of nursing as love in action and how this caring work has always reflected brilliance; this book is her love letter to nurses.

One of the book’s notable aspects is the author’s exploration of the challenges faced by nurses, both historically and in the present. She delves into the complexities of identifying and referring to nurses, interpreting our licensure, certification, education, and scope of practice through the alphabet that follows our names. With reverence, she helps to answer the questions of what all those letters mean and how they connect with the full spectrum of what it means to be a nurse. She skillfully confronts the gatekeeping issues (historical and contemporary) connected to accessing and using the titles of doctor and nurse. DiGregorio is a powerful accomplice in the emancipatory practice of naming and challenging the hierarchy and power dynamics pervasive in our healthcare system and effectively depicts how and why nurses have simultaneously suffered under, helped to construct, worked to dismantle, and maintained the hierarchical status quo. She also helps to shine a light on the issues of race, class, and gender, which pervade our history and are not yet resolved in modern-day nursing.  She explains without apology why nursing must be understood in space and time, separate and distinct from medicine, and unabashedly calls out institutions like the American Medical Association for their oppressive behaviors and policies.

In this book, we see that nurses and the work of nursing are everywhere and have always been a part of the essential fabric of society, from the Byzantine and Roman Empires, reflected in ancient Ayurvedic texts, the American Civil War, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She helps the reader understand that nursing is a distinct profession with philosophies, knowledge, and practices unique to nurses. She understands and uses story to beautifully demonstrate our work’s complexity and uniqueness. She also captures the individuality of nurses and untangles our identity from that of angel, hero, or helpmate. DiGregorio makes the case that our full and active participation in the experience of being human and willingness to reckon with ourselves makes nurses ready and able to care for individuals, communities, and cultures. DiGregorio centers nurses in the history and stories of the symbiotic relationship of healing and focuses on how we have always remained in the closest and most intimate proximity to the people we serve. Nurses are depicted as multidimensional individuals affected by our environments and who do not only observe or objectify the people entrusted to our care. Therefore, nurses continue to be trusted, even when the full scope of our work is not seen or understood by the people we serve.

History is about the stories and the names we don’t know. With journalistic skill, DiGregorio expands the power of nursing and nurses through meticulous research, listening, and, most importantly, by saying our names and committing our stories to immortality on the page. Perhaps for the first time for many, we are introduced to Mary Seacole, a Black nurse and contemporary of Florence Nightingale. Her story illustrates the history of racism, classism, and gatekeeping that nursing continues to reckon with today. We learn about Mabel Staupers, a Barbadian-born Black nurse who successfully organized the desegregation of the Army Nurse Corps and served as the executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. This professional organization existed because the American Nurses Association’s chapters refused to admit Black nurses.  We are invited to meet current-day nurses like Phara Souffrant Forest, a New York State legislator, who is using her experience as a maternal-child health nurse to advocate for state funding of maternal health care, and Jason Fox, a nurse practitioner in Boston who runs a substance use disorder fellowship program for bedside nurses emphasizing the principles of harm reduction and accepting patients as they are without judgment. And, finally, Marcelle Le Beau, a Lakota nurse and elder, whose story shows us that nursing transcends the formal workplace and whose “scope of practice is life.”  DiGregorio lovingly demonstrates that the work of nurses is “quieter than the cacophony, but is powerful, and it is old…we can build a better world, one which the most humane values of nursing can be realized.”  

Ms. DiGregorio is not a nurse. Yet, she wrote an important book about nurses and nursing, intended for an audience that hopefully extends beyond nurse readers. It is impossible to know how many readers have interacted with this text or who those readers are. Does this book break the gendered archetype of the nurse to an audience who are not nurses? This is uncertain. Does this book help shift our history’s narrative beyond the confines of Florence Nightingale? Yes, it does. DiGregorio recognizes the importance of expanding our narrative with an abundance of reverence and respect and that by making our work visible, our power as a profession is strengthened.

Consider the following: Should this book be a mandatory part of nursing education? How can it be seamlessly integrated into nursing discourse? Given the current climate of anti-DEIB and critical theory movements in academia and politics, how will nursing schools in the United States receive it? How can we ensure our nurse learners understand their history to navigate their futures effectively in an increasingly complex and compressed learning and healthcare environment? Lastly, who should read this book, and what possibilities open up when the public gains a deeper understanding of our work?

Reference

DiGregorio, S. (2023). Taking care: The story of nursing and its power to change the world. Harper Collins.

About Nicole DePace

Nicole DePace, MS, APRN, GNP-BC, ACHPN, is a PhD Nursing Student in Health Policy and Population Health at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research interests include improving advance care planning communication and supporting nurses in leading these conversations with patients. Her professional work includes designing, implementing, and leading interprofessional community-based palliative care programs.