Marie Manthey’s Nursing Salon

Good Sunday Morning November 15, 2009

I had to cancel my salon last month due to a heavy travel period.  In six weeks I was in CA, MI, NY, Germany (10 days) and Ireland.  It was an interesting experience because in 90% of the work I was speaking about Primary Nursing and Leadership.  About the past and the future. About the present, and Being Present.  There is a tremendous hunger within nursing to re-member, to re-connect with the basic values of the nursing profession.  And the enormous challenge is the workload and complexity issues that nearly overwhelm nurses is some settings.

During this past year I have been seeped in history.  Both of nursing in general and in the history of the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota where a centennial celebration took place last week. This school is the first on-going school of nursing to start in an academic institution anywhere in the world, as far as we can tell.  (Columbia TC started at a graduate level).

I have been studying the work of the instigator of this school, a physician named Richard Olding Beard. His writings clearly demonstrate why nurses need to be educated, not merely trained, as the title of one article attests: “The Educated Spirit of the Nurse”.

So last week was the culmination of a very busy two months for me and I am now getting back to semi-retirement, whatever that means.

One more thing: the Centennial Gala was the time of an announcement about the establishment of the Marie Manthey Professorship for innovative practices.  If you would like more info about supporting creativity and innovation, add a comment or just email me. I am very excited about it.  Recruitment for the position has not yet started, as fund-raising continues.