Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Released Tuesday, 1st April 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Valery Hughes on nursing in NYC hospitals during the AIDS epidemic, and falling in love in the on-call room

Tuesday, 1st April 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Valery Hughes is a retired nurse who spent her career working in HIV/AIDS care and research. She coauthored Nurses On The Inside: Stories Of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic In NYC with her colleague, Ellen Matzer, after working together in designated AIDS units for many years. Valery takes us behind the scenes of some of the city's busiest hospitals - from crossing paths with her first AIDS case in 1979, to all of the stigma around the disease, and the patients that touched her most. We also hear how Valery met her wife Mary working at Roosevelt Hospital (now Mt. Sinai), the other queer women they worked with, and how they all hung out at the original Cubby Hole (now Henrietta's) after-hours. 

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Follow Valery's book "Nurses on the Inside"

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