Customer Reviews

Tending Lives: Nurses on the Medical Front

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This best-selling nurse-author has created another exceptional book -- a powerful collection of realistic experiences from a diverse group of American nurses. Each chapter is written in realistic, first person narrative style, that takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride from scenes in a psychiatric ward, to the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The author wants the reader to experience "the soul of nurses as they go on about their business of caring," a goal she brilliantly achieves. She borrowed from real-life incidents, and based many scenes on events that she had seen, or that were sent to her by contributors. Echo Heron refers to nurses as "proven heroes," and invites us to "come, take a walk in their shoes." She walks us through exquisite stories that were submitted by thirty-nine different contributors, as well as two of her own personal experiences as a critical-care nurse. Every chapter portrays a different nurse, identified by a fictitious name, who is introduces by a brief, personal portrait. Here are two examples: (Ellen) --"We get so much from the patients...they touch us deep down...They break our hearts, change our lives." (Kate) -- "...there are two kinds of patients who stick out in your mind -- those who might have died if it hadn't been for your intervention, and those who would not have died with dignity if it hadn't been for your intervention." The author shares each vivid scenario while sparing no detail. She takes the reader from tears to laughter in seconds. The short chapters facilitate reading in short increments of time. Because it is intense, reading only one or two chapters at a time will enhance appreciation of each emotional exposé. While doing research for her book, Ms. Heron contacted about four hundred nurses from all fifty states, one hundred permitted an interview, and less than half of these allowed their stories to be published. Many were apprehensive about reprisals, and one even insisted on being interviewed in disguise. As Echo Heron writes, "when a person becomes a nurse they sign on for life...there is a...spirit, a depth of soul... unique to the nurse." She describes nurses as "nitty-gritty hands-on people... Those who choose this profession are...as front-line as front-line gets." This book is for "the millions of nurses worldwide who dedicate themselves to the art of healing," in spite of the turmoil and transitions in healthcare today. This book is recommended for anyone considering nursing, definitely prescribed for those who are already working "on the front line," and for those who had been there at one time. Because of the vivid detail, this book might be too intense for the faint-at-heart or those unfamiliar with the nursing profession. It was my pleasure to relive pieces of my own nursing career as I shared this well-written book. This roller coaster ride was well worth the trip. I am inspired to continue writing my own stories and compiling stories for my own book about nurses, and anyone who was ever "touched" by one. I can't wait to read Echo Heron's next creation!

I have read most of Echo's books, (I haven't read Paradox or Mercy yet) but this one is my favorite so far. It is nice to know that I am not alone and nurses throughout the nation experience the same feelings and experiences that I have on a daily basis. I'm glad that someone has provided a forum for us to tell our side for once. It lets the public know that we, the nurses are NOT the enemy. I have been a critical care nurse like Echo for thirteen years. When I read her stories, I find that she and I have alot in common. She is by far, my idol. we need more nurses like her in the practice.

I love reading Echo's non-fictional stories the best and this one is great. I feel as if I'm in the story with similar situations in nursing. And I learn so much from the many situations. Echo and her writings have been an inspiration to me to keep fighting for patients "lack of rights" concerning personal care/staff. How I wish I had seen her ad to talk with her, what an honor that would have been. Thank you Echo.

As a R.N. with 30 years experience, I look forward to Echo Heron's books because they depict the profession of nursing truthfully and with humor. I was not at all disappointed with this current release. Ms. Heron has put together a book of interviews with nurses that is fast-paced, gives such an interesting history of the profession, and aptly depicts nursing as the part of medicine that still focuses on advocacy and compassion. I am proud to be a nurse, and even more proud that there are people like Echo Heron who continue to speak out in favor of good patient care and bringing caring back to the practice of medicine. This is a book that is a "must read" for anyone in the medical field, while "lay" people will also find it totallly absorbing and impossible to put down.

As a Registered Nurse, I was very excited to see the arrival of Echo's latest new book. Echo was the first to give the most "honest" look at our profession, much to the dismay of some who feel that "good girls should not talk back". In this new book she gives voice to some of the 2.2 million nurses in our country who are, as a whole, concerned about the progess of health care away from the patient, and centered on the dollar. True, these stories may scare some about to enter the hospital, but being well-informed is your best weapon to fight against those risks. Hospitals ARE scary places these days, as they replace skilled nurses with lesser trained (and lesser paid) non-professionals, and the remaining nurses are "burning out" trying to give the best care that they can. Books like Echo's are important to correct that "handmaiden" image of nursing. Anyone who is enthralled by "ER" and other medical dramas will be drawn right into these tales. Nurses have far more to tell than other care providers about the real stories behind the drama, since by the amount of time spent at the bedside, and the intimate work that they do, they are much closer to the heart of humanity-with all its joy, pain, humor and tears.

I first read this book when I was in RN school. I thought to myself, "What am I getting into?" But I loved the book, and I couldn't put it down! I loaned it to a friend and have since bought two more copies. Now that I have been an RN for a year, I see more of what the nurses in Echo Heron's book go through every day. And, even though I am worried about what the future holds for my profession as the nursing shortage looms above us, I have never been more proud of the title that I have. I love my job, and all that it means. I am very proud to be a nurse, and am also very proud to share my profession with someone like Echo Heron, who is not afraid to tell anyone what she thinks, and she is usually right on the money. Keep writing Echo, and we will keep reading.

Echo Heron is a Registered Nurse who writes medical stories on the side. Some novels are of her own experiences, others are fictional thrillers with lots of nursing thrown in, and many open your eyes as to what the RN's see and feel on a daily basis.

This one is a collection of true nursing stories from nurses all over the USA. Some of the nurses were there for the victims of the Oklahoma bombing and tell their stories. Of course, all the names are changed and few details left out. But this book was one of the most fascinating to read.

A word of warning though. I could not read this one straight through. I had to stop sometimes due to emotional overload. The book holds no punches back and you will be walking in the shoes of the nurses who tell the stories. I cried from despair and then laughed from wild humor in the very next story. You never know how they will end. But, of course, neither did the nurses as the events unfolded to them in reality.

Wow! This is a fantastic book for anyone who enjoys reading medical fiction or lay medical fact, or enjoys watching E.R. and other medical shows.
In this book, 40 nurses tell you, in their words, what nursing means to them, in the context of first-person narratives of events in their daily job experience.
These stories are, in turn, moving, funny, and shocking -- and always fascinating. You will "be there" as nurses care for the dying with relatives in denial, or on the psych ward, and the burn ward. You will see how precious, and occasionally cheap, life is considered in Labor and Delivery, and go along as nurses provide home care for those in poverty and former Hollywood stars. You will see the Oklahoma City bombing from a nurse's perspective, and spend a long day on a Hollywood set as a set nurse. You will even travel with a nurse to a clinic in a small village in Papua New Guinea.
In this book, there are several stories focusing on the decision of how to care for the dying -- especially those whose prognosis is probable but not certain. As we look at each instance of care-giving, we see how some in the medical profession have -- and do -- discriminate on the basis of race and income. We see how, for every patient, hospitals and insurance companies skimp on care to increase profits.
Each patient comes in, not with mere symptoms, but with a personality, dreams, fears, background, and family. Through the intimate act of nursing, each patient touches the nurse's life, and the nurse touches each patient's life. Ms. Heron says, "What nurses witness and get involved with on a daily basis -- death, birth, extreme despair, suffering, life-altering trauma, extreme joy, rage, disease -- are phenomena most 'normal' people experience only a few times during an entire lifetime."
This book will entertain you, move you, and shock you. And you will leave with a better understanding of what it means to be a nurse.

With incisive insight, and broad oversight, Echo Heron captures the heart of health care. She treats the true stories of nurses, who spend carreers caring, and transforms them into jewels of knowledge about nurses who work at the heart of health care. This book is a clarion call from the depths of suffering of patients *and* nurses in the United States today. We must heed the voice of the knowledge and expertise nurses have built while sharing the best of themselves at the sides of suffering human beings. It is time to transform this knowledge into action to establish health care as a human right in the United States, once and for all.

I'm not a medical person, but I found this book to be a most incredible look at the world of medicine. The stories are told by nurses who are right there, on the front line....better than any ER episode I''ve ever seen. I laughed, I cried, I shuddered my way through this absolutely wonderful book. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions and amazement. Although the stories are from different nurses all over the country, the reader can still"hear" Heron's voice in the writing...that trademark of dry humor and the ability to cut to the heart of the spirit and the soul. All I can say is WHEN IS THE SEQUEL????? Loved it!!!