LAUSR

THE MOST odious phrase in nursing is the notorious, “Nurses eat their young.” While we all know it happens, it was never my experience. Indeed, my entry into nursing, and my entire career, was and continues to be shaped by generous, secure, highly competent, and welcoming nurses. Until my early 30s, nursing as a career choice never crossed my mind. I had no role models, no nurses in my family, and to this day I have yet to read a Cherry Ames book. I grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at a time when lower middle-class families could still afford to live there. I attended a small private school in the neighborhood that was run by an order of Episcopalian nuns. In September 1968, I became a freshman at American University in Washington, District of Columbia, intending to major in clinical psychology. In the course of 4 very enjoyable but highly impractical years, I changed my major to musicology. As a music student, I was given performance and composition opportunities that, frankly, far exceeded my level of