Stethoscope #14
Donated by Dr. Brenna Morse PhD, RN-BC, NCSN, CNE
“This is the stethoscope I used throughout nursing school and in my first health care job as a unit aide. I remember going to the workwear store with my grandmother to pick it out. I was so excited to finally have my own, I felt like I was really on the road to becoming a nurse after this! Stethoscopes were, of course, an essential tool in the college learning labs and then when we *finally* got to see real live patients on the hospital units. It remains an important tool in my clinical practice to hear hearts, lungs, and bellies, quickly check reflexes, and even entertain some younger children from time to time. But we didn't bring our stethoscopes to class to learn about pandemics. We didn't need our stethoscopes to read about health insurance and barriers to accessing care. Stethoscopes did not help us learn about the legal rights of patients. It was not a tool we needed to really talk to our patients about their health and lives. Stethoscopes did not analyze policies that can support wellness or make staying healthy impossible. Stethoscopes were not packed on the days nursing students provided community health education in places like schools, YMCAs, shelters, and senior centers. Now as a nurse educator, I have wondered if the way I was taught about nursing, and even the way I teach nursing now: if all of the knowledge and ways nurses can contribute to care access, educational opportunities, prevention, policy creation, advocacy, safety... you name it.... were put on the same pedestal reserved for technical skills for which we need stethoscopes in our own eyes and those of the public- would we be here with over 7000 global health care colleagues dead from COVID19?