Cynthia Stock retired after forty-three years in Critical Care Nursing. Her short story “The PRN Wife” appears in our Fall 2022 issue.
“Gordian Knot” (Intima, Spring 2020), a photograph by Elisabeth Preston-Hsu, resonated with me the moment I saw it. Preston-Hsu said it captured “how difficult it can be… to navigate, be cared for and work in the American healthcare system.”
Some consider the Gordian Knot a metaphor for complex problems solvable only by extraordinary action or innovative thinking. According to Greek legend, Alexander the Great failed to disentangle the knot tying Gordian’s ox cart to a post, an act that would have had Alexander declared king. Instead, he cut the rope with one stroke of his sword.
The convoluted twists of the stethoscope in Preston-Hsu’s photograph reminded me that any day at the bedside requires more than treatments based on science, procedures and practicality. Some situations inspire healthcare professionals to shape-shift, assuming roles that deconstruct professional boundaries.
My short story “The PRN Wife” (Intima, Fall 2022) focuses on two young nurses, competent, conscientious, and empathetic, who go beyond professional constraints to meet the needs of a dying man, Jerry. In addition to providing critical care, Rose assumes the role of a family member, caring for Jerry’s dog, and of a significant other in Jerry’s fantasies, as his body shuts down and his mind creates a life he would have liked to live.
“Gordian Knot” (Intima, Spring 2020), a photograph by Elisabeth Preston-Hsu
The narrator watches the connection between Rose and Jerry become as complex and delicate as a spider web. She compares what she has been taught to what she observes and feels. With a new perspective, the narrator adjusts her perception of what it means to be professional, to be a “good nurse,” and supports the world Jerry sees. There is no quick fix for Jerry. There are no simple choices for the nurses.
“The PRN Wife” is a story about the Gordian Knot in healthcare.
Cynthia Stock retired after forty-three years in Critical Care Nursing. During her career she pursued creative writing through various institutions and mentors and now enjoys being a seventy-one-year-old who writes fiction and non-fiction gleaned from fragments of an ordinary life. Short works have appeared in Memoryhouse, Shark Reef, The Manifest-Station, Lunch Ticket a-la-carte, HerStry, as well as several anthologies. The Final Harvest of Judah Woodbine was published in 2014; it told the story of a survivor of the polio epidemic before PTSD was identified. Her work in progress is autofiction, Clocked Out: A Nurse’s Life After Hours. Her short story “The PRN Wife” appears in our Fall 2022 issue.