Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist speaks at U.

In a lecture that was both witty and personal, former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen spoke about journalism, health care and women's rights before a crowd of about 250 people yesterday in the Nursing Education Building. Quindlen, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992, described how journalism has evolved since she started writing for newspapers over 20 years ago. "You basically had the news and the sports -- men wrote those stories. And you had the social pages -- written by women for women," she said. "Any newspaper that stuck to that formula is probably defunct today." Now, Quindlen said, there is a wide variety of stories in newspapers -- "everything from how to save a cream sauce to how to save Bosnia, with some 'Contract With America' thrown in." She also explained how newspapers have changed to the reader's advantage. "We learned to listen to the reader, and that saved the business," she said. Quindlen drew a parallel between past problems in journalism and present problems in health care. "Newspapers have lost the confidence of readers, audiences and consumers. And that's why we have a perceived crisis in health care too," she said. "Not just because of costs, not just because of insurance, but because a significant number of consumers believe that the system does not even see them." She talked about her experiences with health care, as well as those specifically dealing with her family. Quindlen's mother died shortly after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when Quindlen was 18 years old. She said her mother's care was insufficient, in large part because it seemed the doctors did not care about her mother or her family as human beings. "There was no attempt to talk to her or to us," Quindlen said. "The doctors saw themselves as clinicians, as though the cancer touched only her body -- not her mind, not her husband, not her children." In addition, her sister-in-law also died of cancer. Quindlen, who said she was a "constant, happy advocate for nurses" during the five years in which she was a columnist for the Times, discussed the importance of nurses in the future of health care. "Nurses will be the backbone of healthcare in America, as in fact they've always been," she said. She said nurses are being given greater authority today than in the past, and the public is in favor of this. "Now polls show that people are confident that with nurses, they will get something approaching tender loving care," she said. "And that's what they want." Quindlen said the "great social revolution of feminism" dovetails with the issue of health care. "Women have been at the forefront of demands for changes in the way health care is delivered," Quindlen said. "The reason why this should be so should be manifest. We've spoken up because we have had so much to talk about because we have so often been the patients." Ann-Marie Rafferty, a visiting fellow at the Center for Health Services Research and Policy Analysis, was enthusiastic about the speech. "It was a very riveting analysis," she said. "It was reflective of the kind of intensity and the passion and the value which she places on nursing. And hopefully that value will actually help form the perception of nursing in the public sphere." Quindlen's speech was the part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center's "Women in the Public Sphere" series.

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