Tending Lives: Nurses on the Medical Front

by Echo Heron

A critical-care nurse in coronary and emergency medicine for eighteen years, Echo Heron has seen and heard it all. Here she recounts narratives of real-life medical dramas experienced by nurses across the country, sharing with us the inspiring, the tragic, and the outrageously funny: a penitentiary nurse who wasresponsible for orchestrating a murderer's execution; a stroke victim who rose out of his depression when his nurses began telling him jokes; and, perhaps the most riveting testimony, moment-by-moment memories of several nurses who served in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Filled with both tears and laughter and charged with the issues that afflict nursing care today, TENDING LIVES is a gripping, moving, inspiring book, a fitting tribute to a noble profession.

Genres: Medical, Nonfiction, Nursing, Medicine, Memoir, Biography, Health

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1998. 3.5 stars. I have mixed feelings about this one. I am a nurse and am proud of a successful career in the profession. This has been on my shelf for a long time, and I pulled it off to read for Nurses Week in the U.S. It took me almost a month to read because I had to put it away for days at a time over a disappointment. Heron compiles about 40 vignettes from nurses around the country & in a variety of types of nursing and positions. After reading the first one of which I totally empathized and shed a tear, I had hoped they all would be a positive reflection of my beloved profession for the public, instead I found many disappointments and was appalled by some of the stories as well. Certainly not my experience by a long shot.
She does state in her forward that she had a hard time finding nurses who were willing to tell their stories for fear of retribution such as being fired from their jobs. That was surprising to me, as long as there is patient confidentiality and keeping colleagues & facilities anonymous, I wouldn't think that there would be an issue. Maybe that is why some of the stories come from retired nurses who were active before the 1960's....not a reflection of contemporary nursing of the 80's & 90's.
After a number of vignettes that were from some of these older nurses, I almost set this aside. I'm glad I didn't. The memories of those nurses who took care of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing was worth the price and time of reading this book alone. There are stories that are humorous, sad, outrageous, maddening, and enlightening. The one that surprised me the most was the one about the nurse's role/duties on a film set. And one of the many nurses the awed me was a nurse who was also an attorney and did both jobs. Attorney during the work week, nurse on weekends and holidays!! I'm tired just thinking about it.
I had a wonderful, satisfying career but it certainly wasn't perfect. I'm glad my clinical career ended when it did as bedside nursing in the 2000's has definitely changed with technology and low staffing impacting the time one can take with each patient. I am still interested in what is happening in the profession and will probably read stories of nurses especially as they dealt with the pandemic.
All I do know is that I'm a nurse. I tend to the suffering and the dying and I do it the best, most compassionate way I know how.

[India M. Clamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous.

[Rebekah Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. I felt as though I was there talking with these nurses myself. I found myself laughing and crying beside these nurses throughout their stories. This book at the same time sheds light on the injustices in the healthcare system towards both the patients and nurses. It was hard to read at times since most of these stories were in the 1970-1990s and the way nurses were treated was absolutely atrocious. But I felt so much pride reading this book being a nurse myself. The way these nurses loved their patients even though the system is broken and didn’t let them do their jobs correctly, they found a way to go above and beyond for their patients. I felt a deeper appreciation for my field of nursing and for my job currently because what some of these nurses went through no human being should ever have to. Thank you Echo Heron for putting this book together, it truly was such a joy to read and made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to be a nurse and be beside people in some of their hardest moments in life.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that Echo Heron accomplished her goal here. She meant to get real nursing stories out to the general public, in an attempt to shed light on the profession. This book is a compilation of stories from nurses across the country. All kinds of specialties and all kinds of backgrounds. Some stories, I must say were unnecessary and one or two just wrong. By wrong or unnecessary I mean they did not put forth a good image of nursing or were just stories to fill up pages. But the majority made me tear up or get chills (and not in that cheesy Chicken Soup for the Soul crap kind of way). I strongly recommend the story about the nurses who worked in an ER near the Oklahoma City bombing sight. They did not receive the credit they deserved for their work during that time. Anways....Read It!

[Miss Poppy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is HORRIBLE. It's poorly written, sensationalistic, and highly racist - equal opportunity racist, but racist nontheless. It is useless for anyone interested in working in the medical profession.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF after about half of it. Racist.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd read this a long time ago when it first came out and really enjoyed it. When I found it at a local thrift store, I decided to get it and read it again. It was just as good the second time around. Heron's collection of interviews she's done with nurses is a combination of the heartbreaking, the horrifying and the humorous. The section about the 1995 bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City is especially heartbreaking. Definitely recommend this one for anyone who wants a good look into the world of nursing.

[jonny diane - Professional Wedding Officiant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was wrote from the heart of each nurse or medical persons story. Beautiful... it's why we each continue to share the gift of caring compassion love et support. Thank you Ms Heron for sharing what could each of our stories.

[Azul · Rating 2 out of 5]

واحد من أسوأ المذكرات الطبية اللي قرأتها!
القصص تميل للحزن وصراحة الممرضات اللي يقصونها somehow look like freaks!
مابقبل ولو للحظة أنهم يعالجوني!

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informative

[min? · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a dry, factual book about the role of the nurse in the healthcare system, then this book is definitely not for you. Instead, Echo Heron presents us with very personal stories of what it means to be a nurse – as told to her by 39 different nurses across America. Open, heartfelt and often brutally honest, these stories take the reader on a journey into the lives and experiences of the people involved in all aspects of the nursing profession (there even is a story about a vet-nurse caring for dolphins). Some stories brought tears to my eyes, some made me laugh, and some made me think “surely not – that can’t be true!”. In their honesty, some stories in this book may startle some readers, or even offend, and it is easy to see why Heron had struggled to find nurses to recount their very personal experiences – when confidentiality and battling on without complaint is so ingrained in the nursing profession. Most of all, the book reminds us that nurses are human, with their own “baggage” of feelings, emotions and different pasts. What affects one person may be felt completely differently by another.

Personally, I loved this book and the journey it took me on. Some of the stories were fascinating (and a bit scary) – and I realised how sheltered my life is here in rural, small-town Western Australia! I could relate to a lot of the emotions described by the nurses interviewed when caring for the dying, or dealing with sad and difficult situations. Because of the narrators’ honesty, any reader who is working in the nursing profession will find something to take away from these stories and relate to – and anyone who likes medical drama may also find that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. One quote in particular stood out to me :”What it boils down to is that compassion is one of the most effective healing tools a nurse can use – it is the essence of a nurse.” That just sums it up perfectly, I think.

[Linda Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not like any other book. It special in its own way. The tittle is "Tending Lives" by Echo Heron. The author herself is the one narrating the stories that go on in her book. She is a a critical-care nurse in emergency medicine for eight-teen years. She decides to make a book about the real-life medical experienced by nurses all around the country. There is about forty-two different stories, one of the is about a stroke victim who rose out of his depression when his nurses began telling him jokes. All stories are filled with both laughter and tears. My favorite line is "I've been there and you wouldn't believe how gross, awful, horrific it was. Aren't I cool?" Echo Heron is letting us know that there is more then just words. Her stories are real and she wants to share it with us. I think this book is amazing and incredible because nurses out there are letting us know thought out this book what really goes on in hospitals, nursing homes etc. If you want to go for the medical field these books are perfect for you, as they are for me because I imagine myself in these stories and it makes me realize what I'm really heading for in life.

[Holly]

A critical-care nurse in coronary and emergency medicine for eighteen years, Echo Heron has seen and heard it all. Here she recounts narratives of real-life medical dramas experienced by nurses across the country, sharing with us the inspiring, the tragic, and the outrageously funny: a penitentiary nurse who wasresponsible for orchestrating a murderer's execution; a stroke victim who rose out of his depression when his nurses began telling him jokes; and, perhaps the most riveting testimony, moment-by-moment memories of several nurses who served in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Filled with both tears and laughter and charged with the issues that afflict nursing care today, TENDING LIVES is a gripping, moving, inspiring book, a fitting tribute to a noble profession.

[Val Wilkerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. I have read several of Echo Heron's books and enjoyed every one of them. In this she has interviewed many nurses, and writes their stories. The disturbing fact that comes out is that many wonderful nurses are quitting because the system is no longer allowing them to do the job they trained for. They are being given to many patients, more then one person can attend to, the paperwork has become so bad that they spend their time filling out forms rather then helping patients. The doctors do not respect them. But inside all of these women and men are caring individuals with incredible stories to tell.

[grundoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed both her fiction and autobiographical works in the past, but other than inclusion of a couple of her own contributions, the stories in here are passed through in their original voices. The primary theme is why we do what we do, though ranges from anecdotes good and bad, reflections on the profession positive and negative, to a multi-voiced insiders' account of the OKC bombing. If fluids make you squeamish, be forewarned there's tons in here, and worse.

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are true stories from nurses about their jobs. Ranges from psych ward experiences to the moments after the Oklahoma bombing. A must-read for anyone who is going into nursing, any nurses and anyone who wants to encourage the profession. Heron tells each story with such wit and empathy, they made me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time.

[Caroline H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author explores her experiences in critical care nursing, how our "Modern Medicine" has changed the picture for nurses, making it very unrewarding for those trained for and wanting to be, direct caregivers who look for a professional and caring relationship with their patients.
Having a history as an "old fashioned" nurse, I clearly "get" what she is saying.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Another great one from Echo! Loved having a variety of stories from so many different fields of the nursing world. I am a little biased though and love the ED and ICU ones best. Love reading these short stories during downtime. And loved finally getting a chapter from Echo herself.

[Arati · Rating 5 out of 5]

ER stories about nursing.

[Steph Heringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Echo's book before starting nursing school and she scared the heck out of me. I love her stories about real life nursing. She isn't as good at writing novels.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got to meet the author and get my copy of this signed

[Annissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her books... very detailed in what happens in a hospital.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

much better book from this author. I suspect it will only appeal to nurses and those directly involved in the acute medical field.

[Deena Scintilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you pick up this book, you may just see my name as a contributor. :-)

[Jana Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for medical personnel to reunite themselves with why they joined the business and also some pretty familiar stories you can relate to!

[Brynn Chisholm · Rating 2 out of 5]

A telling of many different sides of nursing.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but more sad rather than inspiring

[Anne Oswald · Rating 1 out of 5]

Urban legends masquerading as true stories. Doesn't ring true, at all.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great read, contributions from different nurses working in different fields.