November's Book: The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital by Alexandra Robbins

[Alexis]

Talk about it here! (Sorry I forgot to post this yesterday guys.)

[Karen]

Finding the book very interesting but I'm just appalled that nurses who are assaulted at work cannot file charges without fear of losing their jobs! And what is Sam thinking getting involved with Dr. Spiros?!

[Cheryl]

Just finished. What a great read! I learned a lot about nurses and nursing that I was not aware of. I really liked that the author included stories of actual nurses. That kept it from being one of those dry nonfiction books that are often difficult to get through. Great choice!

[Metropolitan]

Glad you liked it! I haven't actually started it yet, but I'm off all next week, so I plan on reading it then.

[[deleted user]]

I am about 1/3 of the way. We just moved from St. Louis to Edmond, so I hope to get much more reading in now that we are unpacked. I'm loving it so far. A very insightful look in to the profession.

[Metropolitan]

What I've read so far is pretty shocking. I just passed the part about the one nurse who had a drug problem and left a port thing in her foot all day so she could dose herself easier! And the abusive doctors, wow!

[Metropolitan]

An Oklahoma nurse is mentioned in the chapter about sexual misconduct with patients... (p82)

This is really an eye opening book, and it's making me very glad I didn't go into the medical field. I guess every profession has its crazies, but wow there are some horrible stories here.

So, nurses are routinely attacked on the job and expected not to make a fuss about it, but a doctor gets attacked and is given an award. Wow.

Are any of you nurses? I'm very curious for an insiders point of view.

[Metropolitan]

Karen wrote: "Finding the book very interesting but I'm just appalled that nurses who are assaulted at work cannot file charges without fear of losing their jobs! And what is Sam thinking getting involved with D..."

Just getting to that part right now...this has bad idea written all over it.

[Karen]

My mother in law is a retired nurse (LPN). She worked in the cardiac cath lab, not an ER, so she didn't deal with drug addict patients. But she definitely had experience with being given unreasonable patient loads.

[Metropolitan]

My husband used to be a children's mental health nurse, and before that was a nurse in a couple of different drug rehab places. He has some stories, but nothing like the ones in the book. He was frequently asked to do things he thought compromised his license, and refusing to do unethical things made him unpopular with some supervisors.

[Krysta]

I finished this yesterday. I was surprised by some things and not by some others. I could certainly see how it could be easy for nurses to become addicted to pain medication. Good pick!

[Metropolitan]

Cheryl wrote: "Just finished. What a great read! I learned a lot about nurses and nursing that I was not aware of. I really liked that the author included stories of actual nurses. That kept it from being one of ..."

I like how the author structured it, with the chapters about the nursing field as a whole, alternating with the specific stories about people's experiences.

[Metropolitan]

I think my favorite chapter was the one about the way they use humor to cope with horrible stuff. It's interesting how that works, but I can see it being extremely disturbing to patients and their families if they overhear some dark jokes about themselves or their loved ones.

I really liked the story of Lara's turnaround and being able to overcome her addiction.

It's really great that the end the author offered suggestions on how these horrible situations can be improved, rather than just telling us, "Wow, this is bad."

[Jennifer]

Lol... so I'm WAY behind in my reading. I just finished this book. Eye opening to say the least. Good read... just haven't had the time to read in a while. Knocked out the last 120 pgs in one day yesterday. I'm sure I had more important things to do... but I couldn't stand the thought of not finishing it. lol.

[Metropolitan]

Hey, better late than never! This was a good book, and this is why I leave the discussions open once the group has moved on.