I loved this book! I decided not to read it until I was able to leave hospital nursing, good decision on my part. ;) This book brings you right into every nurse's world. Everyone should read it!

Not bad.

Only part of the book I quibble with (apart from the brief reference to the wage-gap towards the end, because I maintain that the wage-gap as it is understood by most people doesn't exist) is the bit with derogatory humor.

Gallows humor? A-OK. So long as you're not doing it in inappropriate situations, do what you have to in order to cope.

But I give approximately 0.0% of fucks about medical professionals who use derogatory humor about patients in their care, like the bit with the guy and the colonoscopy. Literally in NO OTHER PROFESSION would it be acceptable or professional to be caught making statements about how fat a patient is, or how small their penis or breasts are, and if you get caught doing it? You deserve to be sued, tbh.

I mean, let's be real: If your child, parent, sibling, et whatever was on the operating table- presumably for something serious- and you found out that the doctor had been making cracks about how ugly they were, or about their genitalia? Don't lie to me- you'd be completely ripshit and you'd be right to be. This is not about "hurt feelings", this is about showing basic respect for patients, and I have 0 respect for medical practitioners (doctors, nurses, techs, whatever) that engage in it.

Beyond that, the book was pretty good.

[dnf - 35%]

not necessarily bad, just not for me

I absolutely loved this book. It was interesting, candid, and upfront. I couldn't put it down. I love this author too. She wants to uncover some really unique facets of life. If you're a nurse or know a nurse or have ever HAD a nurse, please read this book.

The Nurses is a deep-dive examination of what it is like to work in the nursing profession today. Robbins’ book follows four ER nurses through the events of one year. The names of the nurses and their hospitals have been changed to protect their identity, and of course the city where all of the nurses work is never named. One nurse battles the temptation to relapse into narcotics abuse after the death of her mother; another nurse is newly minted and trying to find her place; the other two nurses have their own personal and professional challenges. These four narratives are balanced with chapters containing well-researched discussion of the challenges facing nurses today.

As evident in The Nurses, Alexandra Robbins holds the nursing profession in high regard. She doesn’t gloss over issues such as the practice of more experienced nurses often “eating their young” or the fact that nurses aren’t immune to workplace cliques, but her main goal is to educate the public about nurses and to tell nurses’ stories. Robbins’ journalistic career has mostly been in the realm of education, but nurses kept asking her to tell their stories, and once she heard the stories, she was hooked, as she says in an interview on BookPage.

One of the main misconceptions about nursing is an old one: the idea of nurses as “hand-maidens” to the god-like doctor. The reality is that nurses are a vital part of the medical team treating the patient, and the “hand-maiden” paradigm is detrimental as it can lead to doctors discounting nurses’ wealth of knowledge, or even doctors mistreating nurses. And the blame for something going wrong disproportionately falls on the nurses.

I really appreciated the inclusion of the ER nurse who had a past narcotics addiction. Her story is not unusual; the nursing profession is vulnerable to addiction due to the stress and access to powerful drugs, though many institutions have put in protocols that have made it less easy to get the drugs without being noticed.

Another shocking aspect to the nursing profession is the frequent lack of a safety support structure to protect nurses against assault by patients, patients’ family members, and even other staff.

The Nurses also casts a critical eye on patient satisfaction surveys, a piece of the Affordable Care Act that can affect Medicare’s funding to hospitals. For example, “the survey doesn’t ask whether the hospital resolved or improved the patient’s medical issue, which one would hope would be the primary determinant of a patient’s satisfaction with the experience.” In early version of the survey, a comment section highlighted how erratic patients’ ideas of “satisfaction” can be, as some patients complained about things like a lack of Splenda, or a dying roommates’ noisy breathing. And of course, there are obvious shortcomings to such surveys: “Molly clocked out and stayed for two hours holding a dying man’s hand because he did not wish to die alone. He won’t be polled about his hospital experience.”

The last chapter of The Nurses is called “What You Can Do: Advice and Inspiration for the Public, Patients, Families, Nurses, Aspiring Nurses, Managers and others.” A few of the take-away points for Patients/Families:

– Appoint one family spokesperson.

– Ask questions – instead of “why” which can put staff in defensive, phrase it more like “help us to understand why he’s getting this medication”.

– Bring hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes.

– “If you want to help the nurse, ask what you can do for the patient.” – family members can bathe patient, “brush their teeth, take them on walks, participate in therapies, and handle feeding”.

Not listed in this chapter, but something I gathered from the book overall, is to try and seek a hospital with a high patient-to-nurse ratio.

It’s funny, for all that this book highlighted the challenges and toughness of the nursing profession, it kind of does make you want to drop whatever profession you are in, and go become a nurse to care for people and save lives. And then, following on the heels of that thought, I admit to myself that I am probably not thick-skinned enough to succeed in that environment.

2.5 stars

Not Robbins' best. Her research is sound but her writing here isn't great, nor is the story compelling enough to speed me through 360 pages.

READ. THIS. BOOK. If you're a nurse, read this book. If you know a nurse (especially if you're married to a nurse), read this book. If you have ever encountered a nurse at any point in your life, read this book. If you want to be a nurse... read this book.

As a nurse, I love how this book highlighted some of the huge issues with the profession (especially short staffing and bullying). This will really open the eyes of people who are not familiar with the healthcare profession and can hopefully help the general public realize all that nurses do and deal with.

I could preach on and on about how difficult nursing is, how taxing it is mentally, physically, and emotionally. But, like our secret expression goes, you won't understand unless you've walked in our shoes. Our crusty, disgusting, bodily fluid-covered shoes. Reading this book can give you some insight as to what it's like for nurses on a daily basis. And that's better than nothing. At least it's a start to getting inside the life of a nurse.

I will recommend this book to literally everyone I know. Read it and learn!!

Everything you wanted to know about the lives of nurses but were afraid to ask! This non-fiction read better than any fiction story involving a year in the lives of nurses and the rich history of the practice of nursing.