The American Nurse: As Real As It Gets

Photographing America's Nurses

Nurses often complain that people don't understand what they really do. Nursing is like a private club with 3 million members, and if you don't belong to the club, you don't get it. Nurses are often poorly portrayed in television and movies and rarely have the opportunity to set the record straight. Most of the time, other people speak for nurses. Now, nurses have been given an amazing gift -- a collection of photographs, starkly beautiful and genuine, with the voices of the nurses themselves, telling the world who they are and what they do. The book, The American Nurse: Photographs and Interviews by Carolyn Jones (New York, Welcome Books), was created by photographer Carolyn Jones and supported by Fresenius Kabi, a healthcare company.

Book cover photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Deborah Nettles, CNS, FNP-C

Where do you begin if your goal is to showcase the multitude of different places where America's nurses can be found? Given complete artistic freedom, Carolyn Jones zeroed in on the most critical problems that our country faces: poverty, hunger, isolation, the elderly, wounded soldiers, and end of life. She circled areas on the map where she could find nurses engaged in caring for these people -- inner cities (the Bronx, New York), Appalachia, rural Wyoming, Florida, San Diego. She contacted hospitals and healthcare facilities in these areas to find the "cream of the crop" of their nursing staffs and asked them to tell their stories. Here, Carolyn Jones is photographing Deborah Nettles, a family nurse practitioner who works on the "Mom & Baby" bus sponsored by the March of Dimes and the Interim Louisiana State University Hospital.

Behind-the-scenes photo. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project.

Rosemary Livingston, RN, BSN

Rosemary is a staff nurse who takes care of infants and children with congenital heart defects and kidney disease at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. "Some people say they could never work with sick kids, but for me, it is the opposite. Children have this will to survive that is so strong, they're always fighting to get better. They never give up. You can't ask for more than that."

Rosemary describes a situation that many nurses will recognize. "A doctor was explaining to a mom about her daughter's condition.... When the doctor left the room, she said, 'Rosemary, can you explain that to me?' So I got a box of tissues and sat with her...and we talked about all the scary stuff. That was one of those experiences where you go home feeling good about what you did for someone else."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Sandra Barnes, MSN, RN

Sandra works on a medical/surgical unit at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, where she typically takes care of 7 patients at once. "When I care for my patients, it is like I am taking care of a family member. That's how I look at it. There's no difference to me. I have the same caring feeling toward them." Sandra recently took care of a stroke patient who went to a nursing home after his hospitalization because his wife had passed away. "I wish I could've adopted him. That's how special he was." Sandra's dream is to run a school for nursing home attendants. "I think that although compassion is something you are born with, it is also something you can learn."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Amanda Owen, BSN, RN, CWCN

Amanda is a certified wound care nurse at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where she goes by the nickname of "Pus Princess."

"I don't talk about my work...because people think a wound nurse deals with gunshot wounds. I say, '...More like chronic, nonhealing things.' That usually ends the small talk." Amanda admits to almost burning out after taking care of a very sick man for many months before he died. "Nothing prepares you for that kind of situation. Toward the end, it was even too much for me. I couldn't sleep, and when I did, I dreamed about him."

"Even though it is very hard sometimes, I never think about quitting my job. I'm a lifer."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Jason Short, RN, BSN

A former auto mechanic, Jason was inspired to go into nursing after a motorcycle accident left him in a wheelchair for 6 months. Jason works nights in the emergency department of the local hospital and days as a hospice nurse. He describes the challenges of reaching the treacherous settings of some of the houses he visits to provide hospice care. "I love going to these houses in the woods because no one else can get there. It can take 2 hours to reach houses built onto sheer cliffs...sometimes we can get a car up, but not an ambulance. Sometimes we have to rappel them down the cliffs to get them out."

Jason was born and raised in Kentucky, not far from where he now works. "It was important for me to stay here because I love the people in this area." Jason is in school, with the goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. "I have found that once you get a taste for helping people, it's kind of addictive. You want to empower yourself to be more and more helpful."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Germaine Williams, BSN, RN, CNOR

Carolyn Jones wanted to hear the stories of nurses from both ends of the spectrum. She talked to nurses who worked in the poorest areas of the United States and some who worked with the fewest resources, but she also wanted to know what it was like to work at the hospital voted the best in the country for many years -- Johns Hopkins. Here, Carolyn is photographing Germaine outside of the operating room. "The hardest part of the job is sustainability -- to give 100% of all you have to every patient, every day. One of the best parts is that you're with the patients as they go to sleep and you can impart comforting words. I try to smile under the mask and hope they see a twinkle in my eye."

Behind-the-scenes photo. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project.

Charlotte Ramey, BSW, RN

Charlotte is a nursing instructor at Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. She likes teaching young people because "nursing is a dying art. It has become so much of a business. Patients come and go home so quickly that we have forgotten the caring side of what they need. I don't think you can teach a caring attitude -- that has to be inherent in a person." Charlotte tells her students that "there is nothing more satisfying than when a patient says, 'I don't think I could've gotten through this if you hadn't been my nurse.'"

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Sandra Randall, RN, MS

Sandra is the administrator of Villa Loretto, a skilled nursing facility in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin. Sandra came to nursing later in life, after being married and having children, because the nursing school she first applied to didn't accept married women. She waited for a change in policy and fulfilled her dream to become a nurse.

In Sandra's view, "Nursing is getting better all the time, as it continues to change and grow. I wish we had more solutions to the national healthcare problems, but I'm convinced that if we hold true to our traditional nursing values, we can make a huge difference."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Deborah Velez, RN, MN, GNP

Deborah works at the VA San Diego Healthcare System as a case manager, helping veterans and amputees. "Every time you see a patient, you learn something, and then you want to know more...to understand it better. That's why I want to keep developing in my profession." Deborah loves being a champion for the special population of amputees. "I've learned that the human spirit, and its will to live, is incredibly strong. I am amazed every day by these veterans and the life force they personify. They are an inspiration to me and everyone else in the country."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Dolores Crowder, BA, RN

Dolores is a school nurse at the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, DC. Dolores shares her philosophy about the profession she loves. "All the nurses I've admired have a compassionate, loving, caring spirit, and they want to give back. Nurses hold each other up, and we share a genuine love for what we do. The money is usually secondary. Nursing is something that requires dedication, and it becomes part of you. I am not just a nurse when I am in school. I am a nurse wherever I go. It's deeper than just a job. Whenever I sign a legal document, I write, Dolores Crowder, RN, because that's who I am -- through and through."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Nancy Schreiber, PhD, MSN, APN

Nancy is an advanced practice nurse with the Night Ministry, a community outreach health bus that makes 3 stops every night around the poorest parts of Chicago. Many of her patients are homeless. "We don't have appointments. People show up, and if they need something, we take care of them. You may only see them for 15 minutes, but you get to know what's going on in their lives. The beauty is that this work is not confined to 4 walls; it is purely service. ...Once I am on the bus, I am in heaven. It is always fast and furious...and I barely have time to breathe."

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Mary Helen Barletti, MSN, RN, CCRN

"I am one of those people who always wanted to be a nurse," says Mary Helen. After getting her bachelor's and master's degrees, she "developed this love for critical care" and has been working in the intensive care unit for 30 years at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. "How often does anybody get to come home from their job and know they saved someone's life? Or, if I couldn't save them, I stood at the bedside of a dying patient with my arm around the daughter who was losing her mother. I've been blessed to have those experiences dozens of times in my career." To be even more helpful to patients and families, Mary Helen has pursued additional education in Reiki healing techniques and in the spiritual needs of the dying.

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.

Carolyn Jones

Working on The American Nurse gave photographer and storyteller Carolyn Jones a better understanding of the country through the lens of the American nurse. "I know what it means to love what you do, to care so much that you would do anything to help your fellow human being." She found herself fascinated by what nurses know about their patients -- the way they understand people holistically, both physically and emotionally. Carolyn also "learned that nurses are like cobbler's children -- they can take care of everyone else, but they're not always so great about taking care of themselves. How do they work these crazy hours, deal with these overwhelming situations, and get up the next day and do it all over again?"

Carolyn's mission now is to dig even deeper, and she is working on a documentary film that focuses on 6 of the nurses she met. "I am trying to give them more of a voice. I want to take people over the threshold and show them what nurses really do and the incredible amount of knowledge they have."

Photo by Paul Mobley. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project.

Rhonda Collins, MSN, RN

The idea of a project honoring America's nurses, in a way that had never been done before, began when Rhonda, a former hospital-based nurse, went to work for Fresenius Kabi to help the medical device industry understand what nurses experience trying to use technology at the bedside.

Rhonda's vision was that nurses would tell their own stories, in their own voices, with their own ways of speaking. No one else would dilute or interpret the nurses' experiences or motivations for what they do. She also wanted to show the incredible diversity of the nursing profession, to reinforce that nurses are taking care of people in places that no one else will go and are doing things that no one else will do.

The American Nurse can be purchased here. Proceeds from sales of The American Nurse are being donated to The American Nurses Foundation

Photo by Carolyn Jones for The American Nurse Project. Courtesy of The American Nurse Project and Welcome Books.