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present opportunities to reflect on our shared values and direction. So, before we embrace technology, we must ask, "Does it really meet our human needs, serve our human purposes, and enhance our human values of caring, compassion, and community?" Some believe that today's technology trends are fueled by our own unstoppable urge to make a difference and improve things around us. But in the arena of healthcare, let us not forget that the goal of health industry business owners is to make more and more money, not to create jobs or raise wages. One of the basic needs of all human beings is the need for nurtur- ing and caring touch. Caring touch helps people compensate for bereavement, dependency, and altered body image. It has also been found to be therapeutic as a form of nonverbal communication. When we touch we form a bond. That bond affirms our interde- pendence and connectedness with one another. In this day of tech- nological encroachment into the care environment, touch is perhaps the only remaining caring, therapeutic tool that actually helps patients feel better. It has the potential to help heal our patients and make the work of practitioners more satisfying due to the observed and quantifiable therapeutic response of the patient. Congruent with our crucial role as patient advocates and propo- nents of healthy public policy, CNA/NNU has adopted a position statement that explores the potential of technology replacing human interaction in the delivery of healthcare and supplanting critical thinking and independent clinical judgment with critical pathways and other forms of artificial intelligence. As the development of technologies continues its rapid evolution, particularly in health- care, it is important that it is harnessed to best serve the individual healthcare needs of patients. Registered nurses have a unique role in assuring the provision of safe, therapeutic, effective and efficient care in the exclusive interests of the patients we serve. Turkle concludes, "We have to be concerned that the simplifi- cation and reduction of our relationships will no longer be some- thing people complain about. It may become what we expect or even desire." We are at a point of inflection, where we can see the true costs of technology and start to take action. She makes a credible claim that we have already unknowingly embarked on an experiment, indeed, a whole series of experiments: robots for chil- dren and the elderly, and technologies that denigrate and deny privacy, deskill, and replace people with a seductive form of elec- tronic simulation. We are unwitting human subjects in a techno- logical matrix. As human beings, we deserve better. When we remind ourselves that it is we who decide how we should use tech- nology, we shall have better. —DeAnn McEwen, RN The Comfort Garden: Tales From the Trauma Unit By Laurie Barkin; Fresh Pond Press A psychiatric nurse consultant, Laurie Barkin, RN has written a fascinatingly vivid account of her five years working at San Francisco General Hospital, the main public hospital for the city's low-income, uninsured residents as well as its primary trauma facility. A transplant from Boston, Barkin's job is to provide psych consults: talk to, give referrals, and suggest services for patients suffering from trauma—whether it's a 19-year-old prostitute who gets her head bashed in with a hammer by a crazy customer, drug addicts who've witnessed ex-boyfriends kill their children, or teens from the local housing projects who've been shot multiple times. In her new job, Barkin is surprised to learn that there is no therapeutic support system in place for the staff, who listen to and must confront unspeak- able horrors and sadness day in, day out. Instead, she discovers a beautiful garden on the grounds of the hospital where cedars, pines, and a myriad of flowers grow. When she feels over- whelmed by the job, she retreats to "the comfort garden" to calm down, gain perspective, and renew herself. As time goes by, it's apparent to Barkin that the patients desperately need some kind of support group so that they can continue to heal psychologically after they have been discharged by the hospital. When she arrives, no such services exist. One of Barkin's great triumphs during her time at The General is that she succeeds in creating such a group. Later, she also attempts to carve out time and space for the psychiatry staff to process the emotions they feel treating these difficult trauma cases, though the lasting effects of that effort are more unclear. Through the stories, which are told chronologically, Barkin also raises larger questions about where the modern practice of psychiatry is heading and how managed care undermines the quality of care. In her later years at San Francisco General, she finds that she is under constant pressure to increase her billable hours. She also witnesses, to her dismay, the entire institution of psychiatry becoming much more focused on pharmacological solutions instead of traditional talk thera- py. As a fellow psych nurse friend put it, "Forget feelings. It's all about pills and quick fixes." Often, Barkin takes refuge in her garden at work, and sometimes in her garden at home. But after five years of vicarious exposure to the stress and trauma of her patients, Barkin needs a break. She is begin- ning to have nightmares and irrational daydreams and fears for her family. "A part of me feels dead...I feel ravaged by overexposure to human cruelty and suffering," she writes. But she knows that, like a plant that momentarily lies dormant to take a rest and gather energy for the spring, her "roots as a nurse [are] deep and unscathed. Come the next rain, I know I will rebloom." Barkin also reveals a lot about herself in the book, frequently depicting her busy family life with her lawyer husband and three young children, and how her work and personal lives influence each other. She weaves the stories about her two worlds together seamlessly. The Comfort Garden is a beautifully written book, at times joyous and poignant, at times incredibly depressing and somber. But, above all, it is honest. —Lucia Hwang J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 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 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15 Books_REV 2 8/16/11 5:16 PM Page 15