Title: Night Shift Diary
Author: R. August King
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
Pub. Date: 06/16/10
Paperback: 43 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir; Nursing
How obtained?: Review Copy from Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team
RATING: 4 ****
In her candid and insightful Night Shift Diary, R. August King shares some of her memories of her eighteen-year career in nursing. Starting with her early experiences as a nineteen-year-old LPN, Ms. King offers the reader a glimpse of what motivates people to devote their professional–and often personal–energies to caring for others. You will also enjoy the humorous journal entries Ms. King shares with her audience.
In the Intensive Care Unit, the author and her coworkers saw patients and their families in some of the most tragic of circumstances. In an environment few outside of the healthcare industry understand, they share patients struggles and successes, and each nurse must learn to balance professional care with personal sentiments. It is this growing sense of capability and confidence that illuminates Night Shift Diary.
In the Intensive Care Unit, the author and her coworkers saw patients and their families in some of the most tragic of circumstances. In an environment few outside of the healthcare industry understand, they share patients struggles and successes, and each nurse must learn to balance professional care with personal sentiments. It is this growing sense of capability and confidence that illuminates Night Shift Diary.
REVIEW:
I received this book as a review copy from Dorrance Publishing. It is a journal from R. August King’s first years in nursing. This book is very short (only 43 pages), so it was a very quick read. The only real complaint I have is that although it is in diary format and labeled with months/years the entries are not actually dated. It does not affect the book, just something that I wish was included.
This book confirmed for me the fact that I could never be a nurse. She tells stories of cleaning diarrhea and buckets of blood. This takes a very special person. A lot of her stories about patients are a little unbelievable; however I do think they are true. Some of these stories include a man cutting off his own penis, and a woman who wants to commit suicide and ends up surviving and having to have both of her legs amputated. One of the stories she tells made me tear up ( a young boy dies).
VERDICT:
I wouldn’t actually recommend buying this book, because it is so short; however it is a good read. It is funny and shocking. It gives a good insight into nursing, and everything nurses have to go through.
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