You'll Know You're a Nurse When …

Article Outline

• Copyright

• 
  • View Large Image
  • Download to PowerPoint

This book is a fun, easy read. The forward expresses the feel of the book very nicely by noting that the book “gives voice and context to the nursing experience.” There are no great revelations, no meanings of nursing, just simple truths. Nurses who read this book will identify with at least some of the anecdotes and nod knowingly at others.

The book is organized into sections, such as Self-Awareness, Off-Duty, and Patients. The quotations are from nurses and are about how nursing affects our lives and vision of the world, how nurses feel about themselves, the kindness of patients, and what the nurses learned along the way. The black and white photographs of nurses that illustrate the book work nicely with the text, although I would have liked to see captions with the nurses' names. More than 90 nurses from all over the United States and a few from outside the country contributed to this compendium.

The quotations all state the nurses' names, credentials, town, and state. I also would have liked to know their area of practice. Favorite sayings for perioperative nurses who read this book will be from two sections:

This book made me smile, brought a tear to my eye, and gave me the desire to write my own quotations about perioperative nursing. You'll know you're a perioperative nurse when …

This little book can be read cover to cover in one sitting, but readers will want to savor it in small doses and pick it up time and again. All nurses will be able to relate to these nursing truisms. I would recommend buying a copy and passing it around the nurses' lounge, especially on a difficult day. It will lift your spirits and make you proud to be a part of this great profession.