Today’s special guest author is Francene Cosman to chat with me about her memoir, Nurse! A Memoir.
Bio:
Emerging from a challenging and dysfunctional early childhood, Francene was determined to be strong and achieve goals that included continuing education and a career. She chose nursing and entered the three-year program at the Saint John General Hospital in New Brunswick. After graduation in 1962, she enrolled in a six-month post grad at the Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey, across from the lights of Manhattan. Her social conscience was awakened, and she participated in the black civil rights movement, joining in marches to support the cause of freedom and equality. At the age of twenty-two, she returned to New Brunswick and became the night supervisor of the obstetrical service (the delivery rooms), post-partum floor and the nursery of the Saint John General Hospital. Later, marriage took her to Fredericton and the Victoria Public Hospital, where she worked in the case room. Following a move to Nova Scotia, she worked in the former Grace Maternity Hospital in the case room, and later became the head nurse on the post-partum floor. After the birth of her second daughter, she retired.
Nursing provided strong foundational skills that underpinned future political involvement. A long political career ensued, first as a county councillor, then the first mayor of Bedford, NS. She was appointed president of the provincial Status of Women; four years later she chaired the task force on the concerns of women and became the executive director of the Liberal Party. In 1993, she was elected to the NS Legislature and became deputy speaker. In her second term of office, she was appointed to Executive Council as Minister of Community Services, Minister for the Civil Service and Minister of the Status of Women. She served six years on the board of governors of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
She currently is the curator of the Scott Manor House in Bedford, enjoys painting, and still speaks out on community issues.
Welcome, Francene. Please tell us about your current release.
Nurse! Was released in late September following an on again- off again effort to produce a final draft that I was satisfied with. It was a process of looking into the past, through the lens of year book entries, diaries, newspaper clippings, chats with classmates, sorting out pictures and looking at the YouTube video of the implosion of the former Saint John General Hospital. The memoir places a steady gaze on the time of nursing schools, where students entered every year to train into the profession, and three years later emerged as full-fledged registered nurses with skill sets that allowed them to fully function in their role.
The story is based on factual accounts of the three-year process, where-in a young, naive, inexperienced teenager struggles to believe she has made the right choice, and experiences what follows from ward to ward. Life, death, poignant stories, laughter and tears, provide the momentum to keep the reader engaged.
The covid pandemic meant that many of us stayed at home with very changed routines, and that gave me the boost to get serious about finishing what I started. As I wrote about the past, simultaneously, I was seeing the present- a time of crisis in our health care systems, shortages of nurses and doctors, closures of emergency rooms, and no easy solution in sight to a serious problem. Does the past shine a light on the present? Is it relevant? Yes. The current crisis did not happen overnight, and the required fix will not happen overnight. I hope my memoir plays a role in generating a much-needed dialogue about change. Real change and not band aide ideas. My hope is that it will cause a relook and rethink about how nursing education is delivered and can evolve again, and that the changes needed, would be part of a larger political debate and action plan going forward. The status quo is broken, the past has its lessons, and the future is ours to shape.
What inspired you to write this book?
The desire to capture history, provided the initial impetus to write the story. We learn from the past and if we lose the details, we run the risk of having to reinvent the wheel. I looked at Saint John, and the hallmarks of what had been significant in my life were no longer there. The beautiful streetscape of King Street with its fantastic shops was demolished and replaced by malls; the Church I attended was gone; the school of Nursing was closed, the General was imploded. Did it matter? I say yes it did. In order for the past to help shape the present, and the future, the element of what was, is needed. If we are to rethink nursing education, we need to know what worked in the past. The evolution of nursing education was predicated on political decisions made without crisis at the time, but change for change’s sake. Now we have the crisis, and now we need to look at why.
What exciting project are you working on next?
I have a few projects in early stages of development; a fiction piece and a series of short stories.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was sixteen, I had an opinion piece published in the Toronto Star newspaper. It excited me to think that someone was reading what I thought, and whether agreeing or not, there it was. This was inspiration of a sort, and I always had a notebook and pen at hand to capture my moments of wordsmithing. When I finished my nursing education I wrote for a professional nursing journal – The Canadian Nurse-and had a few articles published. Over the busy years of my life, I freelanced articles, and also wrote an opinion column for a newspaper. I have written in one form or another through the years. Early writing was done long hand and then typed. I have always written with pen to paper, long hand, as that is the way that inspiration flowed for me. Thank goodness for the dictate function on my computer, as I still love the feel of long hand cursive writing and can dictate my draft and see the printed version.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do not write full time, as I have to experience the inspiration and the energy flow of the words coming into my brain. I cannot force the creative process, so I experience dry periods. I love writing from prompts to keep the juices flowing, so to speak, so I don’t want to stay in a dry period too long. My best time of day is first thing in the morning, and if the creative bug hits, I can stay at it for quite a long period. Discipline is part of the process as well, carving out the time for the different segments of my life that must intermesh. I am an amateur artist and enjoy the focus of working with pastels as my medium. The act of drawing and painting is a different creative process, and when I am in my studio, my brain is in a zone where nothing else intrudes. My love of history inspired writing Nurse! and finds me engaged as the curator of the historic Scott Manor House in Bedford. When you enquire what do I do other than write, I also walk my dog daily, get some exercise, and importantly, engage with family and friends. Can there be enough hours in a day? No.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I love coloured pens and switch back and forth on white paper. I mumble words to myself and go to a dictionary for confirmation.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a doctor, and with no money for university, I ended up in nursing. Thank goodness!
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Buy a nice notebook or journal, get a favourite pen, and write! If you are a reader, you likely have it in you to be a writer, whether for personal satisfaction, for sharing with family and friends, or for loftier goals of publication. We all have it in us.