I have been a nurse for thirteen years, working in the Alzheimer/Dementia field. I have had experience in other areas,but primarily AD.
I have continually been dismayed by the ineffectual hierarchy that is embedded in the nursing field. Do we have to have to have HHA, CNA, LPN, and RN, instead of just nurse? The result of this is that some LPNs and RNs will not do hands on care. They want to keep their distance from the patients and tell the CNAs to do all the "hands on."
I have seen LPNs and RNs go to great lengths to avoid having to do the "dirty work" that is the real nursing.
After all, what is nursing? Is it not giving care to sick people? Care can not be given from a distance.
I used to work at a facility that required everyone to do "care" for a shift once or twice a month. That facility had a higher standard of care as a result.
The CNA is relegated to the bathing, incontinent changing, and feeding of patients; the LPN to administering medications, changing dressings and solving problems with staff and patients; the RN to supervising and calling the doctor. The LPN can and does call the doctor, but can not supervise. Where I work, LPNs can do the same thing under the name of ''team leader". Of course the LPN can bathe, change and feed, but this is where the conflict arises. Many do not want to and indeed will not. This allows for lower morale among the CNAs and the fostering of a "better than thou" attitude. I have never seen an RN bathe, change or feed a patient. I am not saying there are not RNs that do that , only that I have never seen it. Everything seems to fall on the CNA, the least educated and the lowest paid.
Legislation is the only way to change this situation. But there is little chance of it because now the young people going into nursing are getting BSNs and going on to an MSN, so they can teach or be DONs or work in offices and never see a patient.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Seraphine Louis
Seraphine Louis, for whom this site is named, was a 20th century French painter in the naive style. She painted vivid flowers, fruits and leaves that seemed to be alive, with eyes and lips, about to move or speak. Some believed that to view her paintings was to glimpse into her mind.
She was at one with nature, " We who paint see the world through different eyes."
She worked by day as a housekeeper and painted in secret at night by candlelight, using paints she made from the flora and fauna of the region of Senlis. The colors are as vibrant and bright today as the day she created them. Her canvasses were pieces of wood until German art critic William Uhde discovered her and became her patron. Ironic, that, because they were both outcasts. He exhibited her work and she enjoyed new found financial success, which she was unable to handle.
Unfortunately this partnership was short lived because of the Great War. Uhde was made to feel quite unwelcome in France in 1914, and returned to Germany. Seraphine eked out a meager existence in Uhde's absence, but continued to paint, remaining removed and distant from WWI, except reacting to how it made her life more difficult.
Seraphine lived to paint; "My guardian angel told me I must paint". The locals found her to be quite eccentric.
She was self taught and inspired by religious art, living in that gray area between genius and madness.
Seraphine and Uhde were reunited in 1927. During their separation Seraphine had worked feverishly and developed her own unmistakable style to Uhde's delight. Again Uhde's patronage ended abruptly because of the effects of the world wide depression. Few had money for fine art. Seraphine was once again quite poor and had little understanding of why this was happening, for she was not of this world.
She was committed to a psychiatric ward at Clermont and died in a hospital annex, alone and without friends or family.
After her death Uhde continued to exhibit her works in Paris, Zurich and New York. In 1945 a solo exhibition was held in Paris. An exhibition of her work was held in Paris as recently as 2008. Seraphine de Senlis' paintings are alive and well in museums in Paris, Nice and Senlis.
In 2009 the French film Seraphine won seven Cesar awards. Yolande Moreau won best actress for her portrayal of Seraphine.
She was at one with nature, " We who paint see the world through different eyes."
She worked by day as a housekeeper and painted in secret at night by candlelight, using paints she made from the flora and fauna of the region of Senlis. The colors are as vibrant and bright today as the day she created them. Her canvasses were pieces of wood until German art critic William Uhde discovered her and became her patron. Ironic, that, because they were both outcasts. He exhibited her work and she enjoyed new found financial success, which she was unable to handle.
Unfortunately this partnership was short lived because of the Great War. Uhde was made to feel quite unwelcome in France in 1914, and returned to Germany. Seraphine eked out a meager existence in Uhde's absence, but continued to paint, remaining removed and distant from WWI, except reacting to how it made her life more difficult.
Seraphine lived to paint; "My guardian angel told me I must paint". The locals found her to be quite eccentric.
She was self taught and inspired by religious art, living in that gray area between genius and madness.
Seraphine and Uhde were reunited in 1927. During their separation Seraphine had worked feverishly and developed her own unmistakable style to Uhde's delight. Again Uhde's patronage ended abruptly because of the effects of the world wide depression. Few had money for fine art. Seraphine was once again quite poor and had little understanding of why this was happening, for she was not of this world.
She was committed to a psychiatric ward at Clermont and died in a hospital annex, alone and without friends or family.
After her death Uhde continued to exhibit her works in Paris, Zurich and New York. In 1945 a solo exhibition was held in Paris. An exhibition of her work was held in Paris as recently as 2008. Seraphine de Senlis' paintings are alive and well in museums in Paris, Nice and Senlis.
In 2009 the French film Seraphine won seven Cesar awards. Yolande Moreau won best actress for her portrayal of Seraphine.
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