Tales From Kentucky Nurses

This oral history shares stories of Kentucky nurses—from frontier births to emergency rooms and from the early twentieth-century to the present day. From frontier times to the present day, Kentucky nurses have served with intelligence and energy, always ensuring that their patients received the best available care. Folklorist and oral historian William Lynwood Montell collects nearly two hundred stories from these hard-working men and women in Tales from Kentucky Nurses. From humorous anecdotes to spine-chilling coincidences, tragic circumstances, and heartwarming encounters, the tales in this lively volume are recorded exactly as they were told to Montell. This collection features anecdotes from the famous Frontier Nursing Service, which provided essential care to families in remote areas of the state and whose leader, Mary Breckinridge, is remembered for her wit and kindness. In addition, Montell's interviewees share ghost stories and describe folk remedies like the practice of placing an axe under a woman's pillow during labor to cut the pain. These firsthand accounts not only pay homage to an underappreciated profession but also preserve important aspects of Kentucky's history not likely to be recorded elsewhere.

From frontier times to the present day, Kentucky nurses have served with intelligence and energy, always ensuring that their patients received the best available care. Noted folklorist and oral historian William Lynwood Montell collects nearly two hundred stories from these hard-working men and women in Tales from Kentucky Nurses. From humorous anecdotes to spine-chilling coincidences, tragic circumstances, and heartwarming encounters, the tales in this lively volume are recorded exactly as they were told to Montell. Covering medical practice in the state from the early twentieth century through contemporary times, the episodes related in Tales from Kentucky Nurses reveal the significance of the nursing profession to the Bluegrass state's local life and culture. They include funny tales -- such as the story of an injured stripper who swore her pole had been sabotaged and an anecdote about a surgeon racing between hospitals who paid his speeding ticket twice, knowing he would have to hurry the other way in a few hours. Montell also presents moving stories like the recollections of a nurse who helped a frail cancer patient achieve his last wish of being baptized. This valuable collection also features anecdotes from the famous Frontier Nursing Service, which provided essential care to families in remote areas of the state and whose leader, Mary Breckinridge, is remembered fondly for her wit and kindness. In addition, Montell's interviewees share ghost stories and describe folk remedies like the practice of placing an axe under a woman's pillow during labor to cut the pain. These firsthand accounts not only pay homage to an underappreciated profession but also preserve important aspects of Kentucky's history not likely to be recorded elsewhere.

The nearly 350 humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic accounts presented in William Lynwood Montell's latest book, Tales from Kentucky Doctors, offer an unusual perspective on the culture and tradition of Kentucky health-care practice. From the laughable to the laudable, Tales from Kentucky Doctors present illuminating portraits of doctors and patients, drawing stories from physicians with lifetimes of experience serving Kentucky families. In chapter 2, doctors recall the successes and failures that shaped their early careers. For Dr. Baretta R. Casey of Hazard, becoming a doctor was a difficult journey. Already married and with a child, Casey enrolled in college at age thirty, later completed medical school, and began a successful career as a family practitioner in the 1990s. Though patient visitations and doctors' prescriptions are recorded on account ledgers, personal relationships and memories are not part of medical records. The section "Personal Practice" gives a glimpse of the intimate relationships doctors form with their communities. "I doubt that any individual was nearer to the family than the family doctor," Dr. W. L. Tyler says in one story. For many towns, family physicians were heroes. Dr. James S. Brashear relates the challenges of practicing in Central City, a coal mining town, recalling an incident in which he saved the lives of two miners. Handed down to Montell in the oral tradition, the tales presented in this collection represent every part of the state. Personal experiences, humorous anecdotes, and local legends make it a fascinating panorama of Kentucky physicians and of the communities they served.

Introduces readers to prison workers as they share stories, debate the role of corrections in American racial politics and social justice, and talk about the important function of humor in their jobs.

Looking back, author Pamela J. Brink never really wanted to be a nurse, but when she was in high school, she couldn’t think of any other career for women she felt drawn to. She was expected to go to college, but she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. In An Academic Nurse’s Tale, Brink narrates her story, telling how her choice turned out to be a perfect one. She began her nursing career in the 1950s, and it spanned the most turbulent times in nursing education in the United States. Brink documents the times, offering a glimpse of the remarkably interesting period in the development of education, research, theory, and skills. She also presents a look at the ever-changing aspects of academic nursing. An Academic Nurse’s Tale gives firsthand insight into the versatility of a nursing career and describes the interesting, challenging, and rewarding aspects of the profession.

There was a time when the average American woman was more likely to die from childbirth than from any other condition except tuberculosis. This was especially true in areas where hospitals and quality medical care were scarce or nonexistent. But deep in the rolling hills of eastern Kentucky’s Cumberland Range, one woman almost single-handedly changed those dismal figures. Her name was Mary Breckinridge, and her goal was to introduce quality, professionally trained midwifery to the United States. The Frontier Nursing Service, opened in 1925 in Leslie County, Kentucky, set out to meet the health needs of women and infants in one of the poorest regions of America. This book tells the story of Breckinridge’s unparalleled dedication to midwifery and provides a historical overview of the first 40 years of the Frontier Nursing Service.

*A.L.O.S.and other tales from the private psychiatric hospital (*average length of stay)is a short, yet eventful journey through the painfully hilarious landscape of the private psychiatric hospital. This collection of true tales exposes the madness of mental health "mangled care", corporate psychiatry and the day to day tribulations of psychiatric patients via the skillful storytelling and humor of teacher and therapist, Dan Shattuck, M.Ed. If you've ever worked in the private psychiatric field, known a patient or been a patient yourself, you won't want to miss this robust approach to "sanity making".