Two nurses, ED in KS and ICU in the Bay, talking/shouting/educating about healthcare issues + working in covid-times. Run by @lerinjo and @cassieY4
Welcome to twonursestalking’s newsletter by L’Erin and Cassie. We’re nurses who also happen to be professional authors, and as you can imagine we’ve got a lot we’d like to get off our chest right now.
We met on twitter, where the both of us have been continually frustrated by the limitations of the character count against an unrelenting tide of bad takes and covid-related stupidity.
So, who are we?
As a nurse, Cassie Alexander’s worked in the Bay Area for 13 years. She put in ten years on a burn unit, is on her third year in an ICU, and had a crossover stint with critical care ambulance transport nursing in there for a bit. She’s been working with covid patients since she first volunteered in March.
As an author, Cassie has had a 15+ year career in both short stories and novels, and her current series is called Dragon Called, about a nurse (who else!) who falls in love with a dragon-shifter.
As a nurse, L’Erin spent the formative years of her career in a Kansas ICU and has spent the last 8 years as an ER nurse in the Kansas City area. L’Erin has been working with COVID-19 patients in the ER setting since the beginning.
As an author, L’Erin has mostly published short stories in speculative fiction, primarily horror and dark fantasy, available in various anthologies and online. She’s hard at work on a fantasy novel featuring a private detective investigating a mysterious illness affecting children on a strange island.
What are we writing about?
Anything that we need to to blow off enough steam to survive. Some of it will be educational — how ventilators work, end of life care, etc. Some of it will be responses to current trends we’re seeing locally, reactions to bad articles we see online, others will just be journals about our daily lives. As writers, we want to write about our trauma, and both of us being on the front-lines — there’s a lot of it.
Everything here is going to be honest. Raw. Neither of us have time right now to coddle anyone, sorry. So there will be cursing. AND SHOUTING. And we’re going talk about everything here. The PTSD, the heartache, the ‘what it’s like to come home from work and sit in your car for half an hour trying to compartmentalize shit before you go inside.’ How it feels to pour your soul into a profession when portions of America would rather spit on you than put on a mask to save lives.
If that sounds like something you’d like to get in your inbox, 2-3 times a week or so, sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.
In the meantime, tell your friends!