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Trends in nursing education and research cannot be isolated from the dynamics of nursing practice. Likewise, nursing trends are responsive to the projected changes in the delivery, organization, and financing of health care. The health care revolution occurring in the United States is spurred by the questionable effectiveness of the current system to provide access to basic health services in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Because of the lack of a unified federal and state health care policy that directs, monitors, and ensures the basic value of health, discussion about appropriate practice roles and an adequate supply of professionals is central in the health care industry. To address these concerns, immediate shifts in traditional activities may offer solutions by developing guidelines for the optimal size of the health care work force, thus providing the nature and structure of care that guarantees access to health care for all U.S. citizens. (continue reading…)

In the latter half of the 18th century, one woman dramatically changed the form and direction of nursing and succeeded in establishing it as a respected field of endeavor. This outstanding woman was Florence Nightingale. Born on May 12, 1820, the second daughter of a wealthy family, she was named after the city in which she was born—Florence, Italy. Because of her family’s high social and economic standing, she was cultured, well traveled, and educated. By the age of 17, as the result of tutorage from her father, she had mastered several languages and mathematics and was extremely well read. Through the influential people she met, she was expected to select a desirable mate, marry, and assume her place in society. Florence Nightingale had other ideas, however. She wanted to become a nurse, but this aspiration was unthinkable to her family because of the conditions that surrounded nursing. She continued to travel with her family and their friends and, in the course of these travels, met Sidney Herbert and his wife, who were becoming interested in hospital reform. She began collecting information on public health and hospitals and soon became recognized as an important authority on the subject. Through friends she learned about Pastor Fliedner’s institute at Kaiserwerth and visited it in 1850. Because it was a religious institution under the auspices of the church, her parents would permit her to go there, although she could not go to English hospitals. In 1851, she spent 3 months studying at Kaiserwerth, never returning home to live. In 1853, she began working with a committee that supervised an “Establishment for Gentlewomen During Illness.” She eventually was appointed superintendent of the establishment, a position she held from August 1853 to October 1854. As her knowledge of hospitals and nursing reform grew, she was consulted by reformers and by physicians who were beginning to see the need for “trained” nurses.
After the Crimean War began in March, 1854, war correspondents wrote about the abominable manner in which the British Army cared for the sick and wounded soldiers. Florence Nightingale, by then a recognized authority on hospital care, wrote to her friend Sir Sidney Herbert, who was then Secretary of War, and offered to take a group of 38 nurses to the Crimea. (At the same time, he had written a letter proposing that she assume direction of all nursing operations at the war front. Their letters crossed in the mail.) Her tireless efforts resulted in greatly reduced mortality rates among the sick and wounded. When the war ended in 1856, Florence Nightingale returned to England as a national heroine but with her health broken. Much has been written of her “illness,” some suggesting that it was brucellosis; others stating that it was, to a large degree, a neurosis; and more recently some declaring that it was posttraumatic stress disorder. She retreated to her bedroom, and for the next 43 years conducted her business from her secluded apartment. (continue reading…)

WHAT DO VERT SKATER Jason Ellis, the Metal Mulisha, and the frantic agit-pop sound of the band Nurses have in common? No, not the making of a new VH-1 reality show. It’s their collective place of residence, Temecula, CA. Located along the southwestern border of the Inland Empire, Temecula is sandwiched between Tony Hawk’s Fallbrook and the industry-heavy cities Oceanside and Vista. It boasts enough open land for, say, private vert ramps or BMX courses, but how does an eclectic band like Nurses come to fit into the Temecula equation?
The answer is simple: couch surfing. Nurses left on tour and abandoned their respective homesteads. When they returned to their adopted home in the San Diego area (originally from Idaho Falls, ID), they borrowed floor space from friends in Temecula, and eventually settled in. “We’re really isolated from any sort of scene, which encourages us to do whatever we want,” the band says. “There really aren’t any people interested in the same things as us–wizardry, writing bad checks–so we’ve become pretty reclusive.” The fact that Nurses’ music arises from such an unusual, borderline desert area isn’t for want of; it was more of a “let’s make the best of this unusual situation that we can.” In turn, Nurses ignored Temecula, kept to themselves, and set about crafting music in the only way they knew how.

The foursome ultimately moved into a two-bedroom house, sharing clothes and one car between them. They borrowed gear and spent all their money on recording and touring. The prospect of which would be a bit of a daunting commitment for anyone, and Nurses are the first to own up to it. “The hardest part is being so completely submerged in something,” they say. “Everything we do somehow revolves around our band, so sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming. It feels like getting really close to a huge painting and only being able to see a couple inches right in front of your face; you lose perspective on the bigger picture.”

But the bigger picture creeped into scope. Song writing in the band’s home took shape, starting off with either a guitar or piano, and an idea. “We start off with a really bare but structured song. We do a lot of work from that point to make the song as interesting as possible. Everyone offers their perspective, and we collectively reach whatever potential we think the song has.” Nurses’ potentials are endless, and to that effect the band does whatever’s necessary to round out complete renditions of their recorded works. “It’s important for us to play everything from the record live. We couldn’t imagine presenting incomplete versions.”

After three years and a handful of potential-filled tours, the band recorded 12 songs in San Diego with producer Jason Cupp (the Elected, Valley Arena, Finch), the results of which can be heard on Nurses’ introductory full-length, Hangin’ Nothin’ but Our Hands Down. Musically, Nurses urgent brand of stop-go agit-pop summons a broad based spectrum of “Hey, they were greats.” List-wise, disparate comparisons fall somewhere between a more frantic mix of Q and Not U and Kid-A era Radiohead, while retaining the dancier moments of bands like Enon and El Guapo.

Then there are the vocals. You know those moments in life when you think to yourself, “There’s no way in hell this could ever work.” But you try it anyway, and your perception completely changes. That explains Nurses’ lyrical delivery. At times it’s reminiscent of the off-kilter but authoritative voice of Spoon’s Britt Daniels. Then it’s juxtaposed and smashed against the Freddie Mercury-ized pronouncements of Queen.

Yeah, there’s a hell of a lot of space between those two references, and yeah, there’s no way in hell it should work, but Nurses does it. And Temecula is far off the beaten path for indie bands towing the line between innovation and alienation, but Nurses does it. And yeah, the band didn’t meant to unknowingly practice the art of perception smashing, but Nurses indeed does it.

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