Outside Reading: Reflective Essay #2

Reflective Essay: "From Rage to Relief: View from a Nurse's Station"
By Theresa Brown
published March 30, 2010

     Brown's reflective essay, "From Rage to Relief: View from a Nurse's Station" discusses the importance of healthcare with a tone of criticism and then consolation. The Nurse begins by criticizing the V.I.P. patients who get special treatment and their meals served on china, while others can not even afford a meal. Even worse, there are some people who, without having any health insurance, can't even pay for treatments, surgeries, or medication.

     With an opening criticizing tone, Brown pulls the reader in by either standing up for the reader or causing the reader to feel a sense of guilt or defensiveness if he or she is one of those wealthy patients with good health insurance. The other readers, the less wealthy ones with no health insurance, would completely agree with what the writer is saying, and therefore both groups of people would read on to see what Brown has to say. Brown says that the "vast disparities in health care coverage" troubles her because they affect her ability to do her job of being a "patient advocate" (2). 

     The tone of this piece not only intrigues people with it's blunt criticism, but it also persuades the reader of the importance of health insurance. The nurse's tone turns into relief when she begins discussing the positive effects the health care bill would have. She gives a sense of hope to the less fortunate patients when using repetition of the word, "relief," saying, "she feels relief. Relief that a patient will not have to worry about affording the treatment need to stop her cancer. Relief that medication decisions will be based on effectiveness and not cost. Relief that I can educate patients about the drugs they need without fretting that they won't take them if they can't afford them" (2). 


     Brown's successfully accomplishes her main purpose of convincing the reader that the health care bill is important, based on her experiences as a nurse. Her main technique used to fulfill this task is a tone of rage replaced by ease, which shows her passion for the controversial topic.