This came highly recommended by a nurse I know: she's been an NP for 20 years and was a NICU and ER nurse in Baltimore for 19 years before that, so if she tells me that a book on nursing is gripping, accurate, and worth recommending to new and aspiring nurses, I believe her (and you probably should too).

It was definitely gripping. I spent a week telling everyone snippets of the (mostly horrifying and funding-related) facts I was learning. Every time I left work exhausted after multiple storytimes, outreaches, difficult desk shifts, whatever, I said (to myself and everyone around me), "If I were a nurse, I'd still have six hours left to work AND I wouldn't have had a lunch break AND I wouldn't have been able to pee AND I probably would have been assaulted! And I definitely would have had to clean up a lot of bodily fluids!" So, perspective. Thanks, book.

The writing was smooth and readable, totally the sort of nonfiction that has a lot of potential readers and is a great one to have in your back pocket for RA. I'm grateful that it ended on a positive note, because mostly it left me feeling terrified of hospitalization, and concerned for nurses and hospital funding everywhere. (Give them adequate staffing and let them pee!) And honestly, the appendix of helpful tips if you're ever in the hospital was so practical and useful that I'm considering photocopying it for future reference. Also, I'm never paying attention to "patient satisfaction" ratings ever, only nurse-patient staffing ratios. Not that I'm likely to be someone with a choice of hospitals, but still.