Supporting One of Our Own

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of “Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between,” a book written by a Registered Nurse. I was impressed with the fact that she dedicates her memoir “for nurses everywhere.” This indicates that she embodies the spirit and good will it takes to do our job. Theresa Brown started out as an English Professor who became a floor nurse in the trenches.

“At my job, people die,” she writes. “The antidote to death, is life.”

I realize that I am a blogger and my suggestion is just what it is (a suggestion). But I am also an RN and without a doubt I work in the trenches of NYC. Go ahead and get in the middle of a chain reaction by supporting this nurse and author. It’s perfect for nursing students and first year RNs. No knowledge is withheld as Theresa guides her audience through paperwork, physiology, and PCAs (the pump, not the sassy nurse’s aide, leave that one to me).

Remember the fear of dealing with doctors? Mrs. Brown takes us there embracing her first year like a nurse confederate. She carries wisdom, heart, and the invisible strengths of a gifted warrior. She is no stranger to us.

So, to the many nursing students reading this, T-Brown celebrates nurses, she hits the floor like it’s dynamite. “Critical Care” rocks our club with salvation and inspiration.

From T-Brown to my blog's ears:

NYCRN - What made you decide to write Critical Care?

TB - For one thing, it's a story line a lot of people can relate to: how scared you feel in a new job and how stupid you can feel while learning to be better at it. Then, you throw people's lives being on the line into that narrative line and it becomes an unusual and compelling story. I hope it will also come across as a very true representation of what it's like to be a nurse.