Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines
Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines Books
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“A gorgeous, profound, and profoundly vital book. . . . Gordon’s thought is simplicity itself: sick people need skilled, humane, and insightful care that keeps their interests paramount. Registered nurses have historically provided that care, but now their ability to fulfill their crucial role faces the greatest jeopardy in the history of the profession. . . . Life Support belongs in the august company of Silent Spring, The Other America, The Feminine Mystique, and other pivotal works with the power to shape the nation’s consciousness.”–Washington Post
“In this enlightening, involving, in-depth book, Gordon interweaves the history and philosophy of nursing with on-the-job observations of three nurses at Boston’s Beth Israel Sickbay. Gordon lets the nurses converse in for themselves, effectively illustrating their commitment to their profession and involving readers in real-life dramas.”–Publishers Weekly
“For patients, physicians, nurses, and health policy analysts, Gordon’s passionate and accessible account of the impact of managed care on skilled nursing provides clear grounds for concern.”–Health Affairs
In this book, Suzanne Gordon describes the everyday work of three RNs in Boston–a nurse practitioner, an oncology nurse, and a clinical nurse specialist on a medical unit. At a time when nursing is often undervalued and nurses themselves in small supply, Life Support provides a vivid, engaging, and intimate portrait of health care’s largest profession and the vital role it plays in patients’ lives. Life Support is essential reading for working nurses, nursing students, and anyone considering a career in nursing as well as for physicians and health policy makers seeking a better understanding of what nurses do and why we need them. For the Cornell edition of this landmark work, Gordon has written a new introduction that describes the current nursing crisis and its impact on bedside nurses like those she profiled in the book.Amazon.com Review
Health care systems often seem hobbled by rules and scrubbed clean of personality. Life Support displays their warmer, messier human side by trailing three outspoken nurses on their rounds. One works with cancer patients, another with homebound elderly, even as a third mediates between patients and families, doctors and nurses. Between glimpses of large and small life dramas, author Suzanne Gordon (Prisoners of Men’s Dreams) considers prejudice and ignorance about nursing. Does lack of ambition or intelligence bar nurses from medical school? Why is their care denigrated, even as doctors are elevated? How will sweeping changes in health care affect them and, ultimately, us? Her responses are provocative and far-ranging.
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I really liked the aspects of this books that dealt with the three nurses performing their jobs in their perspective fields. That was fantastic- but all the talk about nursing jobs getting cut really gets dull after a even as. So much so I’ve been dreading reading the last chapter. Fantastic book, just has some dull parts.
Rating: 3 / 5
As a nursing student I loved this book. It gave a fantastic perspective on some areas of nursing that nursing students may not be exposed to during clinicals. Toward the end of the book it did get into nursing/sickbay politics and policy, which slowed things down. I wish that the author had finished with something better and more inspiring.
Rating: 5 / 5
It’s often said that in today’s society we have no heroes. If you read this book, you will soon learn otherwise.
Rating: 5 / 5
or even get sick–at least not before you read this book! Illness hasn’t changed but our resources have. If you’ve needed a nurse, a doctor or a sickbay bed recently, you may already suspect that your life is in danger. Suzanne Gordon makes it simpler to know how this exchange happened, and what you can do to protect yourself, or anyone you like. I can’t protect my “babies” from ever apt ill, but I’ve given them this book. The more they know, the more they can do to protect themselves
Rating: 5 / 5
Suzanne Gordon does a superb job of weaving together the lives of three nurses, historical tidbits about nursing, the highlights of nursing theory plus the trends and effects of managed care into one gorgeous book. Brilliant reading for both nurses and non-nurses alike. A *must buy* and perfect gift for your favorite nurses and non-nurses alike — especially during National Nurses Week (May)
Rating: 5 / 5