ahaagsma's blog

An interesting review about the value of nurses caught my eye in a recent edition of the Lancet. Titled “Patient safety: The value of the nurse,” the main point of the piece was that the importance of a competent, confident, and credentialled nurse has never been more crucial, yet in many settings the importance of a robust nursing workforce is undervalued, and as a consequence, a safe health system is elusive. 

Aaron Mishler is an American nurse who served as an Ebola responder in West Africa between 2014 and 2015. At some point, while writing a compelling blog post reflecting on his experience, he wrote a line that has resonated among health care providers over the past year: “There is no emergency in a pandemic.” Mishler’s overarching point was a good one: if health care providers do not use proper PPE in high-risk situations, we risk increased harm to both ourselves and to the populations that we try to serve.

I used to be a rural family physician; I retired completely from the profession less than 10 years ago. These days I spend a lot of time on the river thinking about fish and aquatic insects and not much about medicine. But recently my mother died, and I have been reflecting on how much has changed since I retired. 

As a COVID-19 security measure, many mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers have been isolated in nursing facilities and care homes until very recently. They have suffered the worst of social isolation. My heart was with them and their families. So on this Mother’s Day, Sunday 9 May, I will remember my mom, who died in 1992, but I will also raise my glass in celebration of the mothers of our mothers.

I was accepted into UBC Medical School in 1951 with the proviso that I take a couple English courses in summer school. The admissions committee was satisfied with my science-oriented premed studies, but thought that with my Hungarian high school background I lacked appreciation of English literature. The first summer session course was focused on grammar, the second on literature, and in the literature course I was introduced to John Keats (1795–1821), the celebrated romantic poet of the early 1800s.