Jayne Russell-James has been a nurse for 21 years, currently working as the management coordinator for the psychiatric unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital, but at as a child, she enjoyed writing. So when she saw a course at the College of Nursing and Health Science at George Mason University called Nurses as Writers, Russell-James jumped at the chance to combine her two loves.
At the end of the course, Russell-James and the other nurses had something more than a transcript to show for all their efforts. The class wrote a children's book, "The Magic Stethoscope," that in less than a year is already heading for a second printing.
"It's like, oh, my God, I can't believe I put something together that's been published," Russell-James said. "I feel like a celebrity. People come up to me and say, 'You wrote the book? I just loved it.' I feel very honored to have helped write it. I'd love to be a part of 'The Magic Stethoscope 2' if it comes about."
The book, about two siblings who spend the day at a hospital watching and helping the nurses, is aimed at encouraging middle-school students to think about nursing when they are pondering career choices.
"It's an exciting field and it's all in the book," Russell-James said. "Our mission was to put it out there for the children."
THE CLASS, taught by Jeanne Sorrell, is designed to teach nurses to be better writers for such things as field-related articles, lectures or other publications. The book, however, grew out of a group discussion and soon became a class project, with each of the 14 nurses — Arletta van Breda, Theresa Davis, Rachel Mooney, Russell-James, Lisa Tompkins, Jane Lane, Suzanne Brown, Susan Hartmus, Peggy Gibino, Robin Wyte, Edith Rochon, Ternita Joy, Keisha Hackley and Diana Jordan — writing a chapter about a personnel experience related to their specialty. The co-authors selected the pen name R. N. Hope for the book, and were responsible for its editing, cover selection and artwork. Sorrell wrote the beginning and concluding chapters of the book to tie all the different stories and writing styles together.
"It was wonderful, but at first a little daunting to think that in a semester we were going to write a book," said Suzanne Brown, the manager of FACT, the forensics team, which collects the physical evidence when a child or adult has been sexually assaulted, at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children. "We learned a lot about other people's jobs and other people's experiences. It gave me a great respect for the people who [write] for a living."
In fact, the book did end up being a little too much to handle in a single semester, so the team continued to meet on their own time after the class officially ended.
One of the challenges for the nurses was to write of their experiences as adults on a level a middle-school student could understand. So they used simple words instead of technical jargon and approached sensitive subjects in broader terms than they might have used if talking with other adults.
Russell-James for example, said she choose a story about a patient she once had that had taken all the fire extinguishers on the psychiatric unit's floor and expelled the foam all over the place. Although the patient was psychotic and had to be transferred to another facility, after the fact, the staff thought the story was funny. She also used words such as sad instead of depressed.
"We talked about it in class, about how to use words the children could understand," Russell-James said. "I gave a copy of the book to my niece and she enjoyed it. The nurses in the class had so much fun. I felt like a kid again."
THE NOVICE AUTHORS also received criticism from their intended audience.
"It was helpful that while we were writing, people with kids had them read it and we got feedback," said Diana Jordan, a nurse educator in the HIV program at Inova Fairfax Hospital. "The kids are very honest in their feedback."
Jordan wrote her chapter about West Nile virus, taking inspiration from the questions children in her neighborhood were asking her.
The book has made the nurses mini-celebrities at work and home. Russell-James said all three of her nieces, ranging in age from 10 to 30, want to be nurses, and that she has had people come up to her asking about the book. The nurses have also had book signings and have given talks at local schools. Jordan's niece was so impressed with the book, she made it a school project.
"One of my nieces did a school report on me and did a poster, which is in my office now," Jordan said.
One of the other objectives of the book, besides providing examples of the variety of work nurses do, is to encourage males to think about nursing as a career. To that end, the two main characters are a brother and sister.
"We wanted to make sure that we let everyone know a nursing career was for boys and girls, so we wanted to pick a boy and girl to go through the experiences," Brown said.
So far, more than 800 copies of the $12 book have been sold, the proceeds of which will fund scholarships for nursing students at George Mason University. The book is available in selected local bookstores, at the gift shops at Inova Fairfax Hospital and Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children or through the college's Web site at http://cnhs.gmu.edu/tms.html.
"There's been a tremendous response from the public," Brown said. "Maybe we're planting the seed for someone to go into the field."