Author Christie Watson begins her memoir with these words:
"I didn't always want to be a nurse." Indeed, the first several pages
of the introduction give witness to Christie's many interests, her career
starts and stops, and a peek into what she names her "flightiness,"
including leaving school at age sixteen to move in with her older boyfriend and
his four lodgers (page 5). Then, still sixteen
years old, she begins working with the "Spastics Society" helping to
assist disabled adults. This is the
first time she sees nurses in action, and one of them offers Christie a
suggestion: "You should do nursing. They give you a grant and somewhere to
live" (page 6). At age seventeen, the
author enters nursing school--and like most nursing students, she is "terrified
of failure." During her health screening blood draw, Christie faints; a
nurse suggests she rethink her career.
But Christie persists, graduates, then spends twenty successful years in
nursing. This memoir--densely written,
action packed--is her account of her work especially in the Special-Care baby
Unit, in the medical ward, and in Accident and Emergency. The author brings us as well into the cancer
ward, pediatric ICU, and the geriatric
ward, painting vivid portraits of her patients and the many acts of kindness
she offers them along the way.
