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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good medicine for nurses RETURNING to work, too, March 2, 2003
By A Customer
And in the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot*Your First Year As A Nurse* was exactly what I needed when I needed it, but not for the reason you might expect. I will be 50 years-old this year. I practiced nursing from 1977 to 1991 and am returning to clinical nursing after I complete an RN refresher program. While I may not be "a new grad" I certainly feel new. So much has changed in the last 12 years. I am in need of a big dose of confidence and Ms. Cardillo's book is just the right medicine. The book is well-written, organized and sprinkled with gentle humor. It addresses almost every aspect of feeling inadequate because of inexperience, but it doesn't dwell on negatives. Instead, it focuses on the joy and value of learning and emphasizes strong communication skills. I especially liked it because it is filled with personal stories, and comments from real nurses in the trenches. The most amazing thing about the book, to me, is that it maintains a realistic outlook in a positve manner without sounding like it was written by someone named Pollyanna. Ms. Cardillo makes it all seem possible in the real world because she writes with honesty. She looks at difficult situations head-on and instead of asking "What's the problem?" she asks, "What's the solution?" I left nursing in 1991 in a state of complete burnout. It was a time of change that I could not accept: the dawn of HMOs, DRGs and managed care. Hospital nurses were being laid off in great numbers to save money and replaced with technicians who had two weeks training. Delegation and case loads became the buzz words.
Because of a severe shortage of hospital nurses, there is a huge recruiting effort to get nurses who have left back into the workforce. You'll find everything from RN refresher programs to intense hospital-based internships for nurses who have been out of the workforce for more than five years. Our finances have changed and I need to go back to work as an RN. I was very frightened by this possibility even though I have always kept my nursing license active. And then I found Ms. Cardillo's book. I have cried in places while reading it. It is as though I am recapturing the sacredness of nursing that I had lost. It isn't written just for the beginner. It is also wonderful for someone like me who has been out for a long time and wishes to return. No, I don't have a long time left to work as a nurse (maybe a decade, 15 years at most), and some of the chapters on career building make me very sad when I think of what could have been. (I would love to go back and talk to that young woman but I can't.) Still, *Your First Year As A Nurse* gave me another lens through which to look at nursing. The author reminded me of why I became a nurse in the first place so many years ago. 9/11 affected me deeply. Because of this book, I will "dare to care" once again-and maybe, if I'm lucky, know the place for the first time. Thank you, Ms. Cardillo, for writing the book.
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