Nurses on the Run: Why They Come, Why They Stay

by Karen Buley (Editor)

25 nurses share their stories about
Birth and death
Victories and regrets
Frustrations and hope
What brought them to nursing
What makes them stay
A prison nurse:
Walking back to the control bubble, I felt like a nurse in the Wild West, nursing on the edge. No longer shaky, I felt like a gun-slinging sheriff walking though town after killing an outlaw.
"Nursing in the Big House" - Sara Stassen
A home care and hospice nurse:
Suddenly I was possessed with the urge to literally turn my head to the sky and say, "If you let me keep my daughter I promise I'll give you something back." My desire to become a nurse had finally decided to announce itself.
"My Cosmic Uncle Sam" - Liza Leukhardt
In "We Must Speak Up," editor Karen Buley concludes with a call to action to combat the current nursing shortage.
Karen Buley, RN, BSN has been a nurse for thirty-one years. Her publishing credits include American Nurse Today, A Cup of Comfort for Nurses, Directions in Nursing, Family Circle, Holiday Voices, the Missoulian, Montana Voices, and Story Circle Journal. Karen continues to care for new families and their babies in Missoula, Montana.
10% of proceeds will be donated to nurse educator scholarships

156 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2010

About the author

Karen Buley is the author of the novels Perimenopausal Women with Power Tools and Nanny on the Run, and the editor of Nurses on the Run: Why They Come, Why They Stay. Her work has appeared in print and online in The New York Times, Please See Me, American Nurse Today, A Cup of Comfort for Nurses: Stories of Caring and Compassion, and Inside and Out: Women's Truths, Women's Stories.

After years of obstetrical nursing, Karen traded the magic of birth for the magic of books and is a high school library assistant in Missoula, Montana.

https://www.karenbuley.com/

Reviews

[Nancy Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nurses on the Run,” by Karen Buley was born out of a question posed at a childbirth conference five years ago. The question, “Who will answer the call lights?” It referred to the growing nursing shortage in America which has been caused, according to Ms Buley, not by a lack of interest, but by the difficulties associated with educating new nurses: a lack of qualified teachers, training space and hospital training sites. The nursing shortage is worsened by the problem of retaining nurses in a profession with a high burnout rate.
A nurse of 31 years herself, MS Buley gathered together 25 charming true stories written by nurses. Their stories will make you laugh; they will make you cry. If you aren’t a nurse already, they will make you want to be one; if you are a nurse they make you proud – proud to be part of this noble, “most trusted profession,” an award which, according to the Gallup survey, nurses have won seven years in a row. I highly recommend “Nurses on the Run” for everyone, especially for nursing students, and nurses who may have lost their way and forgotten why they chose nursing in the first place. We all need to be reminded of that every once in a while. ~ Nancy Leigh Harless RN, BSN, WHCNP

[Karen Buley]

Compiling Nurses on the Run: Why They Come, Why They Stay was a labor of love. When I put out the call for submissions, I was navigating unknown territory, so it was a thrill when stories began to arrive in my inbox. Stories trickled in from prison nurses, hospice nurses, neonatal nurses, school nurses, public health nurses, nurse practitioners and more. Kudos to all who contributed to Nurses on the Run for painting an at times tender, at other times humorous picture of the vast array of possibilities a nursing career affords.