By Karen Haller, PhD, RN
VP of Nursing and Patient Care Services,
Johns Hopkins Hospital
You are invited to the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Nutting Gallery to view a remarkable collection of photographs, now on display through April 2006. The collection captures the spirit of Hopkins Nursing on film, and presents an accurate image of real nurses.
The collection is located in the Nutting Corridor, which extends just beyond the Hospital’s main Wolfe Street entrance (between the Wolfe Street Lobby and the Monument Street corridor). Each year a new photographic exhibit is presented. “Nurses Beyond the Walls,” a tribute to Hopkins nurses who use their talents to serve needy communities, is the theme of this year’s exhibit.
The black-and-white photographs were taken sensitively by Andy Thompson of Thompson Creative Imaging, based in Columbus, Ohio. Each one shows an individual nurse with the tools of his or her outside trade. Pat Grimes is shown, not in scrubs, but in riding clothes with a harness thrown over her shoulder. For more than five years, Grimes has volunteered at Normandy Farm in Harford County, Maryland, where she teaches therapeutic horseback riding to disabled children.
The juxtaposition of one nurse after the next down the long corridor conjures up an army of wisdom, intellect, expertise, and commitment to extend healing beyond the walls of the institution. Sacha Simmons works with charities dedicated to supporting the West Baltimore community. Carol Gentry has participated in medical missions throughout the world, including in British Guyana, China, Romania, Gaza, Africa, and Venezuela. Captain Felix Guzman, U.S. Army Reserve, served in Afghanistan as an intensive care nurse.
As others leave to assist with health care for persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina—and to relieve exhausted health care workers in Louisiana and Mississippi—we are reminded that nurses have both the clinical skill and the compassion to serve beyond Hopkins’ walls.