The Nurses

March 30, 2015
Journalist Robbins (Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities) trains her sights on the adrenaline-infused world of emergency nursing, offering a disturbing snapshot of the barriers imposed on healthcare providers by colleagues, myopic bosses, and a changing healthcare system. She follows four ER nurses at four hospitals where patients range from the wealthy and privileged to the down and out, aiming to represent the varied perspectives of America’s 3.5 million nurses. During the book’s year-long time line, Molly quits her full-time hospital job to become an agency nurse while also beginning fertility treatments; Lara battles a crumbling marriage and a history of drug abuse; Sam, a novice, grows into a confident practitioner; and unpopular Juliette, despite a lack of encouragement from fellow nurses, saves lives while advancing her career. To illustrate the realities of nursing, Robbins addresses government surveys that “steer focus away from patient health,” a nursing “code of silence” that helps cover up addiction in their ranks, bullying, and the mix of factors that leads to medication errors. The “nurse confessions” section also dishes eye-opening material to the uninitiated. Robbins uses these four women’s trials and triumphs to show how the nursing profession itself remains as overwhelming as a busy ER.

An intimate look at the lives of nurses.Journalist Robbins (The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School, 2011, etc.) has made a career digging into the secrets of sorority sisters, geeks, overachieving children, and the exclusive Ivy League club known as Skull and Bones. Here, she investigates nursing, offering a detailed, sympathetic, and eye-opening portrait of how nurses work, deal with stresses, and fulfill their mission of serving patients. Drawing from hundreds of interviews and undercover hospital observations, Robbins focuses on four ER nurses who represent a cross section of the profession: Sam, just starting her career at a teaching hospital that happens to be "a destination of choice" for the homeless and drug addicts; the more experienced Molly, who works at a suburban hospital just bought by a corporation with its eye on the bottom line; her colleague Juliette, shunned by a clique of nurses; and Lara, working at an overwhelmed inner-city hospital, who succumbs to the temptation of easy access to narcotics. Caring for patients is stressful in itself, but the nurses' jobs, Robbins notes, are made more difficult by many abuses: doctors who intimidate nurses into keeping silent when they witness physicians' mistakes; bullying by other nurses, more prevalent than bullying from doctors; verbal-and sometimes physical-abuse by patients or their families; lack of support or understanding for nurses' distress when a patient dies; and severe overwork. "For twelve to fourteen hours at a time," the author writes, "they must demonstrate physical and emotional stamina, alert intelligence, and mental composure" no matter what the circumstances. Cuts in nursing staff have led to impossible patient loads and long hours with no time to eat or briefly rest. Robbins ends the book with a chapter on advice for hospitals, the public, and aspiring and experienced nurses, with suggestions for ameliorating some problems. An insightful perspective on the realities of crucial health care providers. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2015
Robbins (The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, 2011) has written about sororities and geeky teens, and now tackles the secret lives of nurses. Though she includes quotes from RNs around the country, she focuses primarily on four anonymous women in four fictitiously named hospitals in an unnamed major U.S. city. Molly sees life from the patient's point of view when she begins fertility treatments. Lara treats indigent patients and gets hooked on the drugs that surround her on the job. Outspoken Juliette struggles at a hospital that sees mostly wealthy people and car-accident victims (it's close to a highway). Sam tries her best at a too-busy teaching hospital. Robbins advocates for her subjects, noting that even though they are key to keeping patients healthy, they are often treated as second-class citizens, and are often blamed when doctors make mistakes. Robbins works in lots of fascinating facts as she argues for improved working conditions for nurses, citing research that shows how much that benefits patients. An educational, sometimes alarming read for anyone interested in learning behind-the-scenes details about hospital life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)