The overworked, fatigued nursing staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City – the hospital which has taken in more victims of Tuesday’s attacks than any other – can expect a welcome surprise in coming days.

Christine King, a professor of nursing at the University of Massachusetts, has given students in her Perspectives in Nursing course the assignment of writing letters of appreciation to St. Vincent’s staff.

“This is a way of addressing the intensity of the tragedy,” King told The Daily Collegian. “Since the course is an introduction, I wanted to find a way I could bring into the class a way to show the impact on nurses, and to share our appreciation with nurses who were on the front line.”

“We believe that sharing one’s experiences is one of the most important parts of healing,” she added. “I thought we could assist them by sharing our thoughts.”

King devoted her Monday lecture to the attacks. She began the class with “From A Distance,” a song by folksinger Nanci Griffith.

She instructed students simply to talk to the person seated next to them for five minutes, and then allow that person to talk for the next five. She later asked for volunteers to share their experiences with the class.

Some students spoke about their conflicting desires for peace and revenge. One student described wondering, “Why me? Why was I so lucky?”

“At first, I thought [the attacks] didn’t really affect me directly,” said Karena Vigliotti, a first-year pre-Nursing major. Vigliotti explained that she later learned that the husband of a former teacher was on board one of the hijacked planes. “Hearing about that only made it worse,” she said. Her grief culminated when she learned that the teacher had found a message on her answering machine that her husband had sent from aboard the plane.

After learning the responses of students, King told them about their letter-writing assignment.

“Often nurses don’t know how appreciated they are,” she said. “They’re appreciated by patients and by the rest of us, who know they’re there. What makes me feel some sense of comfort is knowing that nurses are out there.”

She explained that St. Vincent’s was chosen because, in addition to being near the World Trade Center and taking in a large number of patients, it also had the highest number of survivors of any New York hospital servicing the attack victims.

“St. Vincent’s has a long history of providing excellent care. I don’t need to tell you that there are many poor and indigent in New York. [Their nurses] see an overwhelming number of distressing things. Life in the ‘Happy Valley’, as we call it, is a piece of cake compared to working at St. Vincent’s.

The nursing students were excited by the assignment.

“I think it’s nice,” said Michelle Stevens, a sophomore. “I’m a nurse’s aide, and an Emergency Medical Technician, and I would be glad to get [a letter] like this. Hopefully I’ll make somebody happy about what they’re doing.”

King, who has herself worked as a nurse, described the joy of knowing their actions are appreciated.

“It’s just amazing that people…tell you what a difference you’ve made,” she said. “When they do, it invigorates you to know you’ve touched so many lives. Any human being needs reinforcement to say, ‘I’m doing the right thing.'”