Winners Announced for Seventh Annual Nursing Creative Writing Competition
Date released: 27 May 2009
CONTACT: Dory Hulse, Director of Communications
(434) 924-0085
Winners Announced for UVA School of Nursing Seventh Annual Nursing Creative Writing CompetitionBy Communications Intern Hannah Walker
Typically nurses are not known for their creative writing abilities, but a tradition has developed at the University of Virginia School of Nursing that highlights these talents. What began as required journal entries about clinical experience, turned into a way for the students to express and share their experiences with a broader audience. Seven years ago, assistant professor Jeanne Erickson read through the required journal entries and was moved by the caliber of some of the writing. She believed these insightful and meaningful entries should be shared with others, and thus began the annual nursing student creative writing competition.
Students are asked to submit a poem and/or essay that relates to some aspect of their own clinical experience as a nursing student. Every year Erickson recruits the assistance of Lisa Spaar, Associate Professor of English, and a rotating panel of nursing professors to judge the competition. A modest cash prize is awarded through the generosity of the
This year’s first place essay, Growing Pains, was written by Kristi Glakas. The second place essay was written by Eleanor Bergland and was titled, A Warm Hand to Hold. As Simple as a Bath was written by Amy Nylund, and received third place. Amy Nylund also submitted a poem to the competition and received first place for Leaving Free.
Growing Pains takes the reader into the mind of a nursing student and describes the growth she has experienced throughout her education. She tells of the journey, from her thoughts and feelings of that first day of clinical to the experiences she has endured to develop her into the person she is today. A Warm Hand to Hold describes the connection nurses make with not only the patient, but with the families and friends who are there to support the patient. Along with this connection she illustrates her first patient death experience, which is not one that is quickly forgotten by any nurse. Nylund, in As Simple as a Bath, depicts how nurses’ care goes beyond health and science. The power of that connection between patient and nurse can do some amazing things. All of the 2009 Creative Writing winning entries can be found on the
The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5% in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the School has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. The newly opened