Theresa Brown’s Critical Care provides an intimate look at the work and life of a hospital nurse. For aspiring nurses such as myself, the book allowed me to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what the nursing profession truly entails. As Brown makes clear, while the work is rarely glamorous, it is always meaningful and personal. Nowhere is this more evident than in chapter five, which details a “typical” day on Brown’s floor (ironically, before reading Critical Care, I had read one of Brown’s other books, The Shift, which is a full-length memoir of a single day at the hospital. Thus, this chapter presents a somewhat abbreviated version of The Shift’s main idea). In this chapter, Brown describes the four patients she is assigned for the day, her interactions with other nurses and members of the interprofessional healthcare team, and the tasks she performs throughout her shift. One aspect of this chapter I really appreciated was how Brown took the time to describe seemingly insignificant aspects of her day, from charting and paperwork to conversations with coworkers and lunch breaks. These details, while small, provide a true look at how nurses perform their jobs. Of course, nurses start IVs, give oxygen and medications, and take vital signs, but they also interact with patients and hospital staff, worry about falling behind in their work, and count down the hours to the end of their shifts. It was these details, sprinkled in throughout the chapter, that brought to life what a nurse’s day is really like.
Upon revisiting the course objectives for this class, I was able to draw parallels between the content of this chapter and our learning goals for the semester. Most notably, objective #5, which asks the student to “demonstrate the ability to self-reflect on the intrapersonal aspects of self-care, professionalism, and accountability that are inherent in nursing” seemed especially relevant. Throughout the chapter and the book as a whole, Brown touches upon the topics of self-care, professionalism, and accountability multiple times. For example, she describes the toxic workplace environment she endured on her first hospital floor, and how this led her to make the switch to a different floor to assure her well-being and optimal patient care. Additionally, through the descriptions of her interactions with both patients and coworkers (nurses, doctors, and other professionals included), Brown demonstrates professionalism in how she communicates and develops and maintains relationships. As a whole, while Critical Care provided a look at the work of a nurse, it also gave a great deal of advice, conveyed through Brown’s experiences, about communication, interacting with other members of the hospital team, and caring for the needs of oneself during times of high stress.
References
Brown, T. (2010). Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between.
HarperCollins Publishers.
