On a Monday morning in June, at the start of the week leading up to World Sickle Cell Day, a group of nurses from around the nation gathered in a classroom at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Nursing.
They were in town to listen to local patients describe the agonizing physical pain and emotional trauma of living with sickle cell disease, which most commonly affects individuals of African descent. The disease is a group of inherited disorders that cause red blood cells to become hard and sticky, in the shape of a sickle. The cells die early, causing a shortage of red blood cells.