Julie Goyder

In 1st year (2004) of my nursing degree I had to read this incessantly repetitive book. My lecturer didn't like my essay but she didn't understand that this book reminded me of the post structuralist/post-modern influenced English curriculum I had to study in High School.

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NS 100 Introduction to Nursing, Essay Part B: We’ll be married in Fremantle

Julie Goyder seems to have had a rather profound experience with the close relationship she had with Joe in We’ll be married in Fremantle. I have taken bits and pieces from the book and integrated them into my emerging mindset as a nurse. This is part of my mental preparation for going on practicum in June. We’ll be married in Fremantle was frustrating to read. I would have preferred to have experienced Joe for myself rather than reading about the interrelated ‘storying’ of Joe. Goyder’s writing is from a post structuralist mind set which has taken over the way English and English Literature is studied. In Literary theory meanings are created in contexts between the author and reader of a text[1]. In the case of We’ll be married in Fremantle Goyder argues that Joe is the author and Julie the reader and Joe’s storying is the text. This is not a logical way to think but an acquired mindset that requires an entry into a special discourse[2]. My inability to acquire this discourse early enough in Year Twelve made my TEE experience less than pleasant. As an A English student from Years Eight to Eleven dropping a grade was a shock. What was most disappointing, however, was the time that was stolen by extra work dedicated to English from all my other subjects. These were subjects that I really enjoyed (especially History and Political & Legal Studies) and should have excelled at, as I had done in previous years. Having to read a book about my chosen profession, written in a style and from a mindset I so resent was rather exasperating. Casting that aside, I gained valuable knowledge from the subject matter of the book and it is my personal reflections that I will share in this essay.

My perspective has changed after reading We’ll be married in Fremantle. The book has familiarised me with the environment of a nursing home. I now know something of the routine imposed on residents and the nurses who care for them. I feel this reading will make me participate more confidently in my duties. The stories told have taught me of the worth of being prepared to spend more effort to be compassionate and tolerant.

Only in the last week has the enormity of what it means to go on practicum and how I will grow into a new identity and perception of myself dawned on me. In many ways this is very frightening but it is also a personal challenge: something I enjoy undertaking. I have set a goal for myself for when I am on practicum which I would not have set so concretely if I had not read Goyder’s book. I am going to strive to listen to patients to the best of my ability. The most important lesson from Goyder’s book is that most people, including those people like Alzheimer’s sufferers that we forget the humanness of, have a desire to be heard. Listening and hearing is the way, we, as nurses can comprehensively care for our patients.

Being given this essay has reaffirmed my support for the ethos of this nursing course at Notre Dame. This assignment stimulates thinking about the role nurses play and their complicity in the perpetuation of the present circumstances. As a nurse Julie Goyder questioned the orthodoxy of her nursing home by listening and hearing Alzheimer’s patients as well as engaging with them in conversation. Assignments like this help us to think about what it means to be compassionate and tolerant. They also provide a model and the inspiration to think creatively and act as agents for change.

Reference List
Stewart, K. (1997) A glossary of Literary Terms (2nd ed.), Perth: Batavia Press.

[1] Text: From the Latin ‘textus’, a woven fabric, the term ‘text’ is now used to refer to any language-like construction which has meaning through a system of shared codes and conventions. A novel is a text. The script of a play is a text. Each performance of a particular play is a different text. A photograph, a movie and an advertisement can be read as a text. While to speak of a ‘work’ or a ‘work of literature’ is to imply an author, the meaning of a ‘text’ is a construct of the reader and a text may support a multiplicity of readings and meanings (Stewart, 1997 p. 143).

[2] Discourse: An arena of discussion or a verbal structure with its own terminology and jargon, e.g. legal discourse, feminist discourse or critical discourse. By defining itself and its own terms, an area of discourse operates within assumptions and attitudes accepted by those within the discourse [such as Julie Goyder], acting as a shorthand for conveying a large amount of information to the knowledgeable, while excluding those who do not understand the terminology (Stewart, 1997 p.39).
… (més)