TRACY MORRIS
Human Interest Stories
Nurses Lounge Magazine
Houston edition, March 2007
Sample -- Correctional Nursing: A View of Caring From the Inside
Occasionally a nurse will resign, unable to tolerate the sound of a metal gate clanging shut behind her or the doors that all click loudly as they lock. But Jeanette Elias, RN, BSN, CCHP has stayed at this unique correctional facility on Galveston Island for more than 25 years.
"And there's never been a day when I didn't want to come back to work," Elias says assuredly -- from behind bars and protective glass.
Jeanette Elias is Nurse Manager over two units and 45 employees at the University of Texas Medical Branch's first-of-a-kind facility: the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital. When the more than 150,000 prisoners in either the Federal or State of Texas penal system need hospitalization, this eight-story building on the UTMB campus is where they are brought by ambulance, van, and occasionally by air. They come from all over the state for everything from ambulatory care to psyc care to surgery and intensive care.
Before coming to UTMB, Elias trained in Houston's Medical Center and returned to the Island of her birth when she married a fellow Galvestonian. Upon first applying for a different position with UTMB, she knew nothing of correctional nursing. She'd overheard a conversation during orientation about "the prison unit," as it was called then. She was fascinated by the opportunity to experience the gamut of medical care, fresh out of nursing school. Once she made the choice, there was no turning back.
"I'm the type of person who wants to do different things," Elias explains.
Elias left for a year, beckoned away by a friend who worked at the local VA Hospital in psychiatric nursing. "I missed it, so I went back to correctional nursing," she says with amusement.
"People who are fearful of inmates have always given me funny looks and asked how I can work there," Elias says. "What I've found is that our patients are so used to being treated like they're nothing, they're so very appreciative of the care they receive here. My biggest rewards have been from the expressions of gratitude and respect from these patients."
Military Lifestyle.com
Sports & Leisure Series on Student Athletes, 2001
Sample -- Profile: Ken Graff
Ken Graff is already experienced in positioning himself as a successful individual through team sports. Now he hopes to take that drive into the U.S. Marine Corps and beyond. The son of a soccer coach in Dix Hills, N.Y., Graff says that, early on, baseball was his passion. He added track to his high school repertoire, which also included -- not surprisingly -- soccer. After initially attending Union College, he decided that the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy held more promise for him. Getting there, though, wasn't easy.
"You have to start at the beginning, with everyone else at the Academy," Graff told militarylifestyle.com. While applying to USMMA, he attended classes at a local college and also took the Scholastic Aptitude Test again to boost his score. Because of the Academy's high academic and physical fitness standards, things were touch-and-go at first for the admittedly "borderline A-minus" student.
We Need Not Walk Alone
Magazine of The Compassionate Friends, 2001
Sample -- Considering Another Pregnancy After Loss
"The next time I become pregnant, I will not be able to relax for five seconds until that breathing child is in my arms. I hate it that I will never be as happy as I was when I was pregnant with Emily. I can't allow myself to be that happy again, because I cannot set myself up for another heartbreak."
~ Debra Sanders
Emily Sanders was born quietly into this world after only 21 weeks in her mother Debra's womb. After trying unsuccessfully to conceive for years, undergoing tests to find a cause, surgery and medication to treat infertility, and finally, the most joyful moment of confirming a pregnancy, Debra and her husband Rick lost Emily to an undiagnosed clotting disorder which cut off the baby's oxygen supply in-utero.
The little girl is the young couple's first child. Now, a man and a woman struggle to preserve their marriage, their dreams, their stability amidst the grief of losing Emily and the desire for more children.
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