Anyone considering a career in nursing and who wants to learn what the job is really like should read this book edited by Marian Facciolo. These are memoirs written by nurses working in all settings from hospital emergency rooms, prisons, cabins in the north woods and more. In addition, the time frame Is very broad: women who entered the profession in the 1940s and right up to those who worked through the COVID pandemic. Some of the stories are funny, others are dramatic, and a very few are downright harrowing.
I found found two sections particularly touching: pediatrics and palliative care. In my own workplace experience I’ve admired coworkers who taught me ingenuity and on-the-spot decision making. There are plenty of examples of this here. My particular favorite is a community nurse who arranged a Zoom call for a dying man and his estranged family in Germany. His isolated cabin had no internet connection so she found a techie who volunteered to install an antenna on the roof. These are the memoirs of women who, when given a job to do, carried it out with super dedication.
Available from Friesen Press, Amazon, Chapters.
