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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
This book actually made me a little anxious as I read it remembering the days of working on the floor, and the stress and pressure that accompanied it. The individual personalities of the patients, the frustration of not being able to get into a room when you needed to, the feeling of being pulled in 1 million directions were constant companions. Teresa Brown brings these feelings to life in this book using the representation of one nursing shift.
I enjoyed it, it wasn’t particularly meaningful to me but I enjoyed learning what it’s like to be a nurse and to have to deal with multiple patients. It was enlightening if not riveting!
There is humanity and a brutal honesty to Brown's account. Insightful and well-paced. The last chapter had me sobbing. Will re-read at some point, which is not an honor I give many books.
I heard a snippet of an author interview on NPR one morning and it sounded pretty interesting. I'm glad I picked it up, because it was pretty good. Theresa Brown shows us what it's like to work on a hospital floor by describing just one day, in detail. It's packed with good insight, and Brown used to be an English teacher, which is reflected in the writing.
Having recently had a family member in the hospital gave me some context for this book. If you or someone you know is going to spend some time in the hospital, this is a good resource to remind you that you're not the only patient your nurse has to take care of, and you never know what kind of suffering s/he has to attend to the next room over.
Brown explains a lot of problems with our health care system, particularly the emphasis on charting over doing. In addition to doing all the things she does every day, she has to document everything, and I mean everything. For example, nurses used to only need to make notes of abnormalities when taking vital signs. It saved time for the person doing the charting and the person reading the chart, and it called attention to unusual results. Now, nurses have to make a note of everything, abnormal or normal, and that takes a lot of time. I used to complain about a similar issue in my former job as a retail manager (no time to do more because I'm stuck reporting the stuff I did!), and I can't imagine how much more frustrated I'd be if people's lives were at stake.
I would like to read a similar memoir by a Canadian or a European and see how our care systems differ. There would likely be different issues, and different things to complain about, since health care is a complex system, but I think it would still be enlightening.
Having recently had a family member in the hospital gave me some context for this book. If you or someone you know is going to spend some time in the hospital, this is a good resource to remind you that you're not the only patient your nurse has to take care of, and you never know what kind of suffering s/he has to attend to the next room over.
Brown explains a lot of problems with our health care system, particularly the emphasis on charting over doing. In addition to doing all the things she does every day, she has to document everything, and I mean everything. For example, nurses used to only need to make notes of abnormalities when taking vital signs. It saved time for the person doing the charting and the person reading the chart, and it called attention to unusual results. Now, nurses have to make a note of everything, abnormal or normal, and that takes a lot of time. I used to complain about a similar issue in my former job as a retail manager (no time to do more because I'm stuck reporting the stuff I did!), and I can't imagine how much more frustrated I'd be if people's lives were at stake.
I would like to read a similar memoir by a Canadian or a European and see how our care systems differ. There would likely be different issues, and different things to complain about, since health care is a complex system, but I think it would still be enlightening.
This a memoir written by a nurse and it covers one shift in a cancer ward. It's a peak into the crazy, hectic, chaotic, sometimes sad, sometimes happy life of a nurse. She gives details of medical care and procedures and it really is an interesting insight into the workings of a hospital, the politics and the issues surrounding care. In the book she talks about four patients with different issues and you grow to care about each patient--even the difficult one. It was a fast read, a short book and really interesting.
Read this in less than 24 hours. I really found it interesting and intriguing. I liked learning about what being a nurse is all about, as well as, the personal stories of her patients. This book will make you appreciate what nurses and the like do.
She was a likeable character and I enjoyed the focus on the different characters and how the book was chaptered. Important insight to those who do not understand / appreciate nurses. However with my own knowledge or the field I felt she did not explain certain things well enough and was a bit distant in places. Also she was a bit moany and the forgetfulness annoyed me I was stressed for her. But overall I did still enjoy and I was invested in the patients
I would recommend this to any Nurse, friends/ family of nurses, and other health care providers. Her background in english means this book is written in beautiful prose. And Theresa ponders to herself as well as asking her reader (presumably other nurses) some fundamental nursing dilemma type questions. She discusses many current issues/ concerns of the average bedside hospital nurse and she portrays such an accurate and human view of what it’s like to be a nurse.
Reading this book made me feel relieved. It helped to know that I’m not alone in many of the insecurities, worries, thoughts, feelings and frustrations with this career. It’s also nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels like a pushy nurse for going the extra mile for my patients at times. Theresa is a compassionate genuinely caring Nurse who does her very best with a bit of a disaster of an assignment.
Be warned new nurses, Having unfilled beds is a blessing and a curse. Never assume that your 2-3 patient assignment will be a breeze because you never know who will come through those revolving doors and I can almost guarantee it will be at the worst timing possible.
This book was a joy to read, I felt like I was travelling in her shoes the entire time and I could completely relate with so much of what she was thinking.
5 stars from me
Reading this book made me feel relieved. It helped to know that I’m not alone in many of the insecurities, worries, thoughts, feelings and frustrations with this career. It’s also nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels like a pushy nurse for going the extra mile for my patients at times. Theresa is a compassionate genuinely caring Nurse who does her very best with a bit of a disaster of an assignment.
Be warned new nurses, Having unfilled beds is a blessing and a curse. Never assume that your 2-3 patient assignment will be a breeze because you never know who will come through those revolving doors and I can almost guarantee it will be at the worst timing possible.
This book was a joy to read, I felt like I was travelling in her shoes the entire time and I could completely relate with so much of what she was thinking.
5 stars from me
I was interested in reading this book, since our youngest daughter is an RN in the NICU. I have always been in total awe of the immensly important work she does with infants and hoped this book would provide more insight into her daily routine. This book did exactly that and more. Although this nurse took the reader through a day in the hospital on an oncology floor, much of it seemed similar enough in a general manner for me to draw a comparision. The author, Brown, was an English professor before she became a nurse, so one of the suprises for me was that it was a very well-written book. It read fast, save for the fact that I stopped a number of times to look up definitions.
I highly recommend this book whether you're in the profession or not. Chances are someday you, or someone you love, will stay in a hospital and reading this book will help you to clarify and appreciate the very hard work nurses do.
I highly recommend this book whether you're in the profession or not. Chances are someday you, or someone you love, will stay in a hospital and reading this book will help you to clarify and appreciate the very hard work nurses do.