Abstracts
Keywords:
- global public health,
- public health promotion,
- public health nursing
Since retiring, you have written your memoir on your early-career public health nursing experience as a Cuso volunteer in the late 1970s and early 1980s, titled Not One, Not Even One: A Memoir of Life-Altering Experiences in Sierra Leone, West Africa. And, remarkably, you have also developed a solo play with the title Rethinking Good Intentions. You have performed this play for nursing organizations, schools, and faculties of nursing and public health, as well as for public audiences at fringe festivals to wide acclaim. I have had the privilege of reading your memoir and seeing your performance, both of which inspire a depth of reflection and understanding of health and community. What do you hope that people mainly take away from reading your memoir and from attending your performance? I decided to write the play nearly 2 years after I published the memoir. I wanted to reach more people in a more intimate way. I use a storytelling genre and perform the play as a monologue. I thought a live play would reach people’s hearts and minds. Preparing to write a play was a steep learning curve for me. I joined a number of storytelling groups and took a storytelling course to try to learn the craft. I worked with a mentor and a couple of dramaturgs. Although I’ve written as an academic researcher for years, that writing was all about the evidence and reaching an audience through their intellect. My play provides for a much more intimate experience and helps me and the audience to connect more deeply at an emotional level. I try to bring the audience along with me as I relay some of my community health experiences in rural Sierra Leone. I love experiencing the immediate reactions of a live audience. It’s so different from having somebody read and then cite your research article, different again from someone who has read and reviewed my memoir. For me, it’s profoundly moving when, as an actor, I hear the audience laugh, and then as the play progresses, I see audience members crying during the more emotional scenes. Despite the tears, I hope to leave the audience with a sense of hope and optimism. Both the play and memoir delve into the fundamentals of doing public health and global health work. My dream would be to have the memoir and/or the play become part of nursing and public health curricula. The story provides real-life examples of social and structural determinants of health, the roots of poverty and its pervasive impact on people’s lives, and facilitators and barriers to providing public health services. The memoir and play profile the critical role of lay health workers and provide examples of community engagement. It’s one person’s experience, but many people have told me that they can easily relate to my experiences despite the play’s setting being different from the ones where they have lived and worked. I think both the memoir and the play can be used to jump into discussions with students about fundamental public health issues. I have prepared a set of questions that can be used as a discussion guide. Nurses’ contributions can help realize progress towards the SDGs within our own communities, our own country, and globally. One of the problems with the Alma-Ata Declaration was the perception that it was primarily aimed at people living in low-income countries. When I came back to Canada, many colleagues would say, “Well, you’ve had a really interesting experience, but what does it have to do with health care in Canada?” There was this view that primary health care …