"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.