Carol Flegg’s RN: Resilient Nurses: Book Launch in Nova Scotia

At the request of her faculty colleague Dorothy Lander, Leona English introduced Carol Flegg for the June 13th launch of her book RN: Resilient Nurses – Frontline Stories from the COVID Pandemic, published with HARP The People’s Press.  Leona knows Carol well as a graduate student in the Master of Adult Education program at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) and as a doctoral student in Education through Mount St. Vincent Education.  You can read the essence of Leona’s introduction here.  What Leona does not record in the written record that follows, is her comments about the challenge of transforming a PhD dissertation of 280 pages into an accessible and personal record for the popular press.  Leona said of the 100 pages of RN: Resilient Nurses: “I hardly recognized it.”  This too is a writing triumph for Carol.

 

Leona M. English

When I think of Carol, I think of zinnias, mainly because she shares with me her love of flowers and colour and she has gifted me her favorite lime green and orange zinnia seeds, as well as her carefully harvested nigella seeds. She celebrates and makes art in every way possible and now most wonderfully in this book on art and resilience and nursing, she has created a memoir of herself and her participants in the time of Covid. I was fortunate to be a member of her doctoral committee and to have witnessed the research which formed the basis of this book on Resilience in Nursing. I learned about resilience long before I practiced the word and I heard about it from legions of nurse students who were completing master’s programs in adult education, like Carol did. Resilience is the key in dealing with what Cathy Crowe called “historic and systemic assaults” on nurses. Carol IS resistance.

She is the epitome of the lifelong learner, the person who knows all about resilience —serving at the bedside and in public health and through the challenges of Covid, then through the process of writing and researching the stories of four nurses in the pandemic, as well as her own story.  Though we all lived through it, these women, including Carol, navigated it as workers, and the workplace was not ideal. We need to hear stories of resilience since health care is the cornerstone of our social system. It needs to be robust and our nurses need respect.

Her book is the result of a research project focused on artmaking with nurses to express their experience of Covid. Her ability to bring together a small group of participants to explore health and resilience in such a horrific time is commendable. Her research in this area will undoubtedly make a significant contribution to the understanding of arts-based research and resilience in healthcare and educational institutions. In this case, the sharing of collage and story was the springboard for releasing the untold stories of pain and resistance from nurses on the front line. Her own artwork graces this book as a powerful testament to how art has healed her own wounds.

I was told many years ago that a researcher should publish their work in three ways: conference proceeding, academic paper, and practical piece. Carol has done all three with her scholarship, a treble befitting Lionel Messi, if ever there was one.  She has presented her research at scholarly conferences, written her master’s thesis into a refereed paper for an academic journal, and has now written a book in the popular press for her own profession. Flegg also serves as an associate editor for the peer-reviewed journal Art/Research International, a forum dedicated to exploring and advancing art within the research process across disciplines and internationally.  Talk about following good practice —You did it, Carol.

Yet, I know Carol has more to give and say, and more to live. She embodies resilience. In the words of Maya Angelou, “You may write me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted lies/ You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

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For those of you who are not following the World Cup, I had to look up her comparison of Carol’s scholarly research to “a treble befitting Lionel Messi.” A treble in soccer happens when a team (FC Barcelona in Messi’s case) wins their domestic league, their domestic cup, and the continental Champions League all in one year. It is one of the hardest achievements in the sport.

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We were represented at the book launch of Dr. Carol Flegg’s RN: Resilient Nurses at the hospital in Antigonish by nurses, including retired nurses, graduates of St. Martha’s School of Nursing, by a patient with recent experience of nurses in Toronto and Antigonish hospitals, by community members and personal caregivers familiar with a wide range of nursing care (hospital, nursing homes, hospice, home care and VON) and by the media.  Ken Kingston of 98.5 interviewed FM Carol Flegg; the interview was aired on Thursday, July 16.  Check it out on the website: www.989xfm.ca

Our choice of Antigonish for the launch of RN: Resilient Nurses also aligns with the 125th anniversary of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha, the founders of St. Martha’s School of Nursing. Street nurse Cathy Crowe recommended RN: Resilient Nurses as an essential resource for every school of nursing and Carol Flegg reported on initiatives that are including resilience in the nursing education curriculum.

Barb Fry (MAdEd, RN) contributed to Carol Flegg’s book launch from afar by coaching her in the topics to cover, which Carol named and expanded on one by one:

1. Why this book matters
2. What are the key messages?
3. Who do you hope to reach?
4. What is your hope for change coming out of this book?
5. Gratitude: who do you thank for supporting you in writing this book?

These topics could be the focus for any HARP book launch.