Enjoyed it, though I did find the writing a little young - but only at times. Good book, many many good points. Very interesting, and a great look into Nursing.

I would definitely recommend this one :)

For some reason I was thinking about this author recently, remembering how much I liked Pledged and The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, and thinking I wanted to read more non-fiction this year, so I looked her up to realize there were a number of her books I hadn't read, the most interesting of which (to me) was The Nurses.

It did not disappoint, and was written in the same style of Robbins's other books. Robbins followed four ER nurses for a year and told each of their stories. Each chapter contained a segment of their year, as well as a segment of research/information - whether it be the stats on bullying, the effect of hospital bureaucracy on nurses' (and patients') lives, the increased use of illegal drugs among nurses, and more.

I guess I knew that nurses were the unsung heroes of hospitals. I also knew they were overworked, understaffed, and over-stressed. But man, this book really drove it home (it was also written in 2015 and I'd like to think there have been improvements made to the system since then, but I'm guessing the answer is either "no" or "not enough"). It's amazing what these women (and some men, aka "murses", but mostly women) go through. The things they put up with and still keep coming back every day because they are CALLED to do this is amazing.

I felt so much for each of the four nurses - Molly, fed up with the hospital she was working at, decides to become an agency nurse so she can rotate between hospitals and find out if there's one that is the dream hospital to work at (all while going through fertility treatments). Juliette - at the same hospital Molly quit from - feels excluded from the "clique" of the popular nurses but can't imagine leaving and instead focuses on patient care and bettering herself, trying not to let being left out hurt her feelings too much. Lara, previously in her career, found ease of access to prescription pain killers and how much they helped her make it through the long hours too tempting. Eventually admitting her problem and seeking help she was slowly allowed to re-enter the workforce and is now finally back in an ER again, but will she still be able to stay clean back in the same high-stress environment? Finally, Sam, a young new nurse has to deal with finding confidence in her knowledge, all amidst rumors that are being spread about her among the rest of the nursing staff.

Again, this book was written in 2015, and I'm dying for a follow-up on each of these nurses. Which to me is a sign of a book well written, since I got so invested in each of them. All while learning something about an environment I will likely have to deal with at some point in my life. It was pretty eye-opening and a read I recommend.

Robbins is one of those authors for whom I don't care all that much what the subject is—the book is likely to be interesting regardless. [b:Pledged|160098|Pledged The Secret Life of Sororities|Alexandra Robbins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1417411958s/160098.jpg|25899] and [b:The Overachievers|25575|The Overachievers The Secret Lives of Driven Kids|Alexandra Robbins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430499699s/25575.jpg|1286112] are both books that I've reread multiple times; I enjoy the breadth of research mixed with personal stories. (As a non-Robbins example, [b:What It Takes to Pull Me Through|861285|What It Takes to Pull Me Through Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out|David L. Marcus|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387735767s/861285.jpg|846715] worked well for me for the same reasons.)

The Nurses is a tricky one. It's the same basic idea as the books mentioned above: follow a small group of people for roughly a year; construct a narrative with research and other anecdotal stories; fit the pieces into an entertaining, informative book. It's just, this one seems a tad biased.

I think of Pledged as a book where the author worked pretty hard to, if not avoid biases altogether, let the reader come to their own conclusions about sororities. I think of The Overachievers as a book where there isn't a huge risk of bias to begin with. But here: [This book] is meant to represent nurses' perspectives and to celebrate them (25).

The four ER nurses Robbins follows are the bones of the book, as you might expect; the reader is meant to get invested in them and their stories. Sometimes that is at the expense of other characters in the book. Charlene, a nursing supervisor, is introduced to the reader as 'insufferable' (27) and 'Scatterbrained and prone to favoritism' (30). If she has depth, it doesn't show. If this book were your introduction to nursing and doctor/patient relations, you might come away with the impression that doctors are all egotistical bullies (except for the very few who are reasonable human beings) and nurses are all belaboured, hard-working, intelligent saints who don't receive their due (except for the very few who are lazy bullies).

(Don't get me wrong: I think nurses have a tremendously challenging job in more ways than one, and this is hardly the first thing I've read to suggest that they're underappreciated and overworked. I just wanted more nuance.)

Oh, I don't know. The anecdotes are interesting—in some cases a lone anecdote could be the starting point for a much longer piece—but...not misleading, exactly, but without adequate context. A nurse in India commits suicide following her hospital's lack of response to a doctor sexually harassing her (51)—which is unacceptable in any context, but doesn't address the fact that sexual harassment (and response to it) is a giant problem in India in general. Telling me that more than half of nurses in a survey in South Korea have been sexually harassed (also page 51) doesn't tell me much because I don't know what the statistics are like in South Korea to begin with. Or this: In an unscientific poll for the purpose of this book, I asked more than 100 nurses whether they or any of the nurses they worked with had engaged in a sexual relationship with a doctor, nurse, or other coworker. Eighty-seven percent said yes (78). I know she agreed that it was unscientific, but—how does that compare to other workplaces with hundreds of workers? And if she asked people who worked at the same hospitals, what's to say that they aren't all thinking of the same nurse who happens to be boffing a doctor?

Last grumpy comment, and then I'll move on: Patiently explaining gallows humour and the idea that doctors and nurses use it (189) insults my intelligence. So does describing the 'July effect' as 'a major secret about hospital life' (258).

Despite all my grumpiness...while I would recommend reading other books about medicine in addition to this, I would recommend The Nurses as an accessible read that's sympathetic to a profession that doesn't always get much respect. I met a woman last year, at a college reunion, who told me she was a nurse—and then said, apologetically, that she knew it was a stereotypically 'female' and 'caring' profession... I asked her if she enjoyed the work, and she said yes. And isn't that largely what counts? It seemed so sad to me that she was devaluing work she obviously valued (and which, you know, is difficult and necessary and, well, valuable) because she thought other people wouldn't value it. Not too much of that here.

I remember finding Pledged to be quite a different picture than my (small school) sorority life, so I wonder if Nurses takes the same broad brush. Still, I enjoyed the perspective and the research.

Well researched, this is an absolutely absorbing and somewhat alarming look at today's nursing profession.

Been a huge fan of Alexandra's for years. Great storytelling and journalism. Can we request what topic she touches next?? ☺☺☺

I liked this book, although I felt that most of it was focused on the negative stuff. It was a good read, though.

"At 3.5 million strong in the United States and more than 20 million worldwide, nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers. The women who comprise 90 percent of the workforce are a unique sisterhood whose bonds are forged through the most dramatic miracles and traumas as well as the tedious, routine tasks necessary to keep human bodies functioning. Nursing, for brave men and women, is “like a secret club that holds immense emotional joy and fulfillment in spite of shared tragedies,” a Michigan nurse practitioner told me. Nurses call the profession a secret club because their experiences are so novel, their jobs so intimate and occasionally horrifying, their combination of compassion and desensitization so peculiar, that they imagine nobody else could understand what it is like to work in their once-white shoes."

Nurses is an insightful and thought provoking expose of the health care profession, the result of more than a year of research, undercover investigation, and interviews by best selling author and journalist Alexandra Robbins.

Interspersed with facts and figures, Robbins narrative shares the experience of four ER nurses, Molly, Juliette, Lara and Sam, to explore the major challenges nurses face in the workplace including sexual harassment, bullying, drug addiction, violence, and stress. As these women try to uphold the tenants of their profession, they struggle with uncooperative colleagues, dismissive doctors and uncaring administrators.

With profit clearly prioritised over providing quality health care, Robbins also reveals disturbing details about unheeded policies, poor standards of cleanliness and deliberate under staffing in many hospitals. It is a frightening glimpse into an institution that is responsible for our health and safety at a time when we are most vulnerable.

Written with heart, detail and honesty, Nurses is an eye opening look at the frustrations and joys of this undervalued profession. A must read not only for any one contemplating joining the field but also for those already embedded within it, and anyone interested in what really goes on behind the scenes.