Condition Critical [Mass Market Paperback]

Echo Heron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 1995

"ENTERTAINING...GRITTY, BEHIND-THE-SCENES DETAILS OF HOSPITAL OPERATIONS."
--Booklist
"In the prologue of this book, Echo Heron, RN, states: Nurses are able to do what they do because they are rich in the gifts of healing, compassion and love. She then goes on to illustrate that statement with 18 chapters of amusing and moving true stories of her career in critical care and in the emergency room."
--Chicago Tribune
"Heron gives a voice to her fellow nurses (a savvy, wisecracking, take-no-guff voice) and turns them into real people."
--Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Although Heron provides enough personal detail to make the book a very good read, its importance lies in her depiction of how sick people really function, what nurses do to help them, and how little physicians, hospitals and our society understand or value that work."
--The Washington Post Book World
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD(c)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a sequel to Intensive Care, critical-care nurse Heron continues her bold critique of life in an unnamed San Francisco hospital and describes her struggles as a burned-out single parent.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Heron picks up where she left off in Intensive Care (Atheneum, 1987) with this latest exploration of her life as a critical care nurse. A gifted writer, Heron lifts the veil on the sometimes wrenching, always demanding work of the critical care nurse as she or he tends to the sickest of the sick day in and day out. Compassion, frustration, and humor pour off these pages as Heron details her work and her relationships with family and co-workers. Her empathy for, and support of, patients in the face of life-threatening crisis is genuine and moving. Highly recommended.
--Anne C. Tomlin, Auburn Memorial Hosp. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ivy Books (May 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804113351
• ISBN-13: 978-0804113359
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but read 'Intensive Care' first, July 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Condition Critical (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the sequel, as it were to Echo Hero's first biographical volume 'Intensive Care' and for the most part, continues in the same entertaining vein. I really symathised through the account of her burn-out, but felt the attraction for me dwindling during the Monserrat section of the book. None the less, definitely worth reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mandatory critical nursing read, March 22, 2006

By 

B. Emory (Wilmington NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Condition Critical (Mass Market Paperback)

So far this is the only book that I have read by Heron but its indeed the best picture of the critical care nurse's work life. Incompetent physicians, critical patients, demanding families, lazy co-workers, and of course the constant surprises, are all highlighted in hilarious quips. I love how Heron makes nursing sound as challenging as it is. I have been working critical care for only a short time but its amazing the power that your knowledge has over determining a person's outcome. Heron highlights different scenarios and what interventions she had to do to make sure that the patient's condition improved. She is an extraordinary nurse and an excellent author. This book would rattle many would be nurses, while getting an appreciative nod from experienced ones. Its a great book and Heron should be proud of this work. It really shows people how hard nurses work and that there is a lot of compassion in this field.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Condition Critical, January 2, 2001

By 

"bbqrn" (Arlington, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Condition Critical (Mass Market Paperback)

This review comes from a non-reader. I read only if it keeps me reading. I read Intensive Care after a co-worker had given it to me and found a common bond with Echo Heron having been there myself. I bought Condition Critical when it first came out and she did it again. I left a hospital after the "assistants" came to help with our staffing problems. In this book, she tells it like it is and stands up for nursing--I wish she was still nursing and writing. We need nurses who can say what needs to be said and let the public know what's going on. All her books are entertaining and the real life one's are so funny, many a time I was laughing out loud!!