04.11.2025

Book Club

Be Inspired by a Combat Nurse and Her Fight to Honor Women Who Served in Vietnam

Read this book. Engage in weekly discussions. Earn 6 contact hours.

Healing Wounds: A Vietnam Combat Nurse's 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C.

Author Diane Carlson Evans served for six years in the Army Nurse Corps, including a year of service in the Vietnam War. Afterward, she had the idea for a memorial to honor women who served there. She fought 10 years for that memorial.

At a Congressional hearing, Evans testified that women were not required to serve, but they did so anyway.

Women believed "we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," she said to Congress. "If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered."

Thank you, Diane Carlson Evans, for making your nurse colleagues matter.

The Vietnam Women's Memorial (National Mall, Washington, D.C.) was dedicated in 1993. Click HERE or on the pic for more info.

Read more about Diane Carlson Evans HERE.

What do readers say?

Healing Wounds has received high praise from readers. They say that Evans' story is powerful, dynamic, touching, and inspiring. It's a "book everyone should read," said one reader, "not only for the story of [Evans'] life in the military but also for her life fighting agencies to get the nurses' statue."

How to Participate

Get and read the book.

• Check your library or purchase online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or numerous other book sellers.

Register at the link below.

• After you register, we'll email you information you need to join the discussions, including a Teams meeting link.

Participate in the one-hour discussions starting at 7 pm via Teams on three Tuesdays.

• May 6 | May 13 | May 20

Earn contact hours.

• You can earn 6 contact hours by engaging in each online discussion and by completing the final evaluation survey.

The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

This Book Club is

FREE for PSNA members

and $40 for non-members.

Register HERE*by Friday, April 25.

Questions? Email HERE.

*The registration link takes you to PSNA's Continuing Education Center.

If you have an account, click on "Sign In."

If you do not have an account, create one by clicking on "Sign Up."

Pennsylvania State Nurses Association

3605 Vartan Way, Suite 203

Harrisburg, PA 17110

717.657.1222

www.psna.org

Meet Alisha Gosnell, a doctoral candidate at A.T. Still University’s College of Graduate Health Studies. She is pursuing a Doctor of Health Sciences degree, with a concentration in Global Health.

Alisha is also a U.S. Air Force Senior Airman with the New Jersey Air National Guard, where she received the Outstanding Airman of the Year award in 2023.

How fitting for PSNA to introduce Airman Gosnell in this e-newsletter about military women. Alisha is seeking your engagement in her doctoral research study. Look soon for the link to her survey that explores your perceptions, as nurses, about health care improvements based on your use of electronic record systems in inpatient and outpatient clinical settings. Ultimately, you will help to shape how organizations might implement additional electronic record functionality into their practices.

Again, look for a link coming soon. The survey is brief, maybe 10-12 minutes, and your participation will benefit your profession.

PSNA recognizes all who serve or have served in our military, including airmen like Alisha and combat nurses like those recognized in Healing Wounds. Thank you for your service.