Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between

Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between

by Theresa Brown
Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between

Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between

by Theresa Brown

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Overview

“Among all the recent books on medicine, Critical Care stands alone.“ — Pauline Chen, author of Final Exam

“A must read for anyone who wants to understand healthcare. Extraordinary.” — Elizabeth Cohen, MPH, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent

Critical Care is the powerful and absorbing memoir of Theresa Brown—a regular contributor to the New York Times blog “Well”—about her experiences during the first year on the job as an oncology nurse; in the process, Brown sheds brilliant light on issues of mortality and meaning in our lives.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061791543
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 04/26/2011
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 373,769
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile: 1080L (what's this?)

About the Author

Theresa Brown, R.N., lives and works in the Pittsburgh area. She received her B.S.N. from the University of Pittsburgh and, during what she calls her past life, a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago. Brown is a regular contributor to the New York Times blog "Well." Her essay "Perhaps Death Is Proud; More Reason to Savor Life" was included in The Best American Science Writing 2009 and The Best American Medical Writing 2009. Critical Care is her first book. She lives with her husband, Arthur Kosowsky, their three children, and their dog.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Author's Note xv

1 Why the Professor Became a Nurse 1

2 Getting My Feet Wet 13

3 First Death 27

4 Benched 43

5 A Day on the Floor 61

6 Condition A 81

7 Openings 99

8 Doctors Don't Do Poop 113

9 Switch 129

10 Access 147

11 Poison 165

Epilogue 183

Acknowledgments 191

A Reader's Guide 195

Questions and Topics for Discussion for Nursing Students and Faculty 197

About the Author 201

What People are Saying About This

Julie Salamon

“If Theresa Brown tends her patients as well as she tells her story, they are lucky patients indeed. This absorbing dispatch from the front lines of medical care captures the daily travails and triumphs of nursing with humor, compassion, and sometimes terrifying immediacy.”

Pauline Chen

“A beautifully written account of a nurse’s first year on the wards, a medical memoir that combines lyricism and compassion with searing honesty and well-timed laugh-out-loud wit...I loved this book.”

Suzanne Gordon

“Brown shows us what it means to be a nurse and helps us understand that nurses need as much intensive care as their patients. Sometimes more!”

Elizabeth Cohen

“A must read for anyone who wants to understand healthcare. This extraordinary book will open your eyes to the reality of nursing. If you or your loved one ends up in the hospital, you’ll wish you had someone like Nurse Brown at your side.”

Richard M. Cohen

“Critical Care is a gift from an English-teacher-turned-nurse who writes from a deeply human context about her first year in a hospital oncology ward...A book of stirring stories about how we live, care for the sick and die.”

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