Beyond \u27Hot Lips\u27 and \u27Big Nurse\u27: Creative Writing and Nursing

This essay describes a special topics creative writing course designed for nursing students, and argues that creative writing strategies work to improve nurses\u27 compositional skills. Also discussed are other potential benefits from creatively writing patients\u27 lives, notably, the blending of arts and sciences, and the ways in which medical schools are encouraging their students to study the humanities, especially literature and creative writing. The essay includes student creative writing samples. The essay also discusses the depiction of nurses in popular culture. M*A*S*H*, Richard Hooker’s black comedy about the antics of doctors and nurses during the Korean War, gave us “Hot Lips” Houlihan. Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u27s Nest, book, offered homage to the human spirit and also gave us “Big Nurse” Ratchet. “Hot Lips” Houlihan and “Big Nurse” Ratchet have two things in common: they represent the stereotypical character of the rigid, rule- and role-bound nurse, and they are well-trained professionals