My guess is this was James Patterson’s easiest book to put together. All he (or maybe it was one of the two “contributors” who did this) had to do was write a short paragraph at the beginning of each nurse’s testimonial introducing him or her. The rest is a Studs Terkel-like narrative about what it’s like to be a nurse. Almost all of the stories are fascinating; however, that said, many are pretty gruesome. A handful require a pretty strong stomach. Like other reviewers have said, I could have done without the religion that several nurses injected into their stories, but that’s just me. My admiration for nurses, already strong, is now even stronger for having read this stories. ( )

Well, it's as expected. Humans are just not very nice nor do they follow directions very well. Not following prescribed medical practice and then yelling at your nurse because you're dying that's just a stupid human fault. It can be depressing. ( )

Way too much god stuff, but otherwise very good. Nursing really is a special career and this book gives a realistic look at the job and the intelligence and autonomy of nurses. This isn't the first time I've heard ER nurses complain about the ickiness of fluids experienced in childbirth. As a labor and delivery nurse, I always thought it humorous that nurses who could handle blood and excrement in any other situation were creeped out by it when mixed with amniotic and vaginal fluids. Oh well, the great thing about nursing is that there's a specialty to fit anyone's interest. ( )

This is a collection of personal stories from more than 50 ER and related emergency services nurses. Most of them include a short bio and it was amazing how varied their backgrounds were, especially the ones who came into nursing as a second career. Their stories were intense and ranged from the rewarding ones where their patient beat the odds to the ones where they didn’t. Several went beyond the case history styled stories and into the nurses’ own thoughts on nursing. For example, the struggle to stick to rigid hospital policies when a more flexible approach might be better for the patient and their families, burnout, PTSD, and the impact of Covid. It certainly gave me a better appreciation for all the work nurses do. ( )