National Nurses United

Books_FNL with art 8/20/10 4:06 PM Page 22 herself with no recourse. Nor do we find the nurse struggling with knowing a physician is not acting in the interests of the patient and not knowing what to do about it within the confines of a businessoriented system and "at will" employment. Neither are there any instances of nurses standing together as a group and taking concerted action to change doctor behavior in the face of institutional indifference. By and large, the stories in this book seem to take place in isolation—in a world divorced from a larger context of a healthcare system, from the reality of healthcare mergers and for-profit medicine that often rewards the most "productive" physician, while penalizing the most caring and compassionate. I would love to have read the story of the nurse who lost her job after she reported a physician who made a policy of torturing Medicaid recipients during labor to "teach them a lesson" not to have babies while on public assistance. It would have been interesting to have heard from the nurses who knew their hospital's respected cardiologist was sending patients with normal hearts to surgery, but were afraid to speak out about it in the context of a corporate system that supported the doctor—right up until he became the subject of a 60 Minutes segment. Those stories are out there. And they should not be that hard to find. I really don't want to be too hard on this book. It's a good-hearted book. Nearly all of it is quality writing from excellent nurses. I enjoyed reading it. But it was the enjoyment of a sweet dessert or a tasty appetizer. I wanted a richer, spicier, and more provocative main dish. —David Welch, RN When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough: Stories of Nurses Standing Up for Themselves, Their Patients, and Their Profession Edited by Suzanne Gordon; Cornell University Press oted nursing author Suzanne Gordon edits and writes introductory prefaces for each chapter of When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough, but the bulk of this book consists of 71 stories about registered nurses written by the nurses themselves. Several stories are written by RNs connected to National Nurses United and CNA, including RN Karen Higgins, an NNU copresident and former president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and RN Vicki Bermudez, who was a former regulatory policy specialist for CNA. N 22 N AT I O N A L N U R S E Nurses are shown advocating for themselves and their patients from daily on-the-floor issues to the realm of applied research. Gordon doesn't present one topic as more important than the other. She covers them all with equal attention. The titles on the different submissions from the nurses are attention grabbing: "An Inconvenient Nurse," "Gloves Off," "We Rained On Their Parade," "One is One Too Many," and more. I was intrigued by the stories of nurses asking to share research, confronting doctors, saving patients, and mentoring new nurses. Bermudez's essay, titled "Taking on the Terminator," focused on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's failed 2005 challenge to the state's RN-to-patient ratio law, the first in the country, and on CNA's role in stopping him. Higgins' entry described how the dangers of hospital restructuring pushed her to overcome her fear of public speaking and realize that staff nurses are the experts and "the backbone of healthcare." What caught my eye the most, however, was the chapter at the end of the book called "We Are Still Fighting." In this chapter, Gordon and her contributors share some examples where nurses were not successful, and she states why: "Patient advocacy doesn't only involve taking occasional risks; it means being ready to lose a battle or two along the way but still continue the struggle...Real progress is made only when some people continue to stand up for what's right, regardless of the odds against them and without any guarantee of success that (much to the surprise of everyone) may be right around the corner." Perfect for busy nurses, most of the submissions are two to three pages in length, easy to pick up and read in short bursts. I'm not a nurse but I found that after reading the first several submissions, I was energized and felt more confident. There was something about reading the words of people who dared to take a stand and make a difference that was inspiring. I think you'll have the same reaction. —Ann Kettering Sincox W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0

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