Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul by LeAnn Thieman- Book Review
Title: Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul: 101 Stories to Celebrate, Honor and Inspire the Nursing Profession
Author: LeAnn Thieman
Publisher: HCI (Health Communications, Inc.)
Publish Date: August 2001
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary(blurb): If you're a nurse or health-care professional, Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul will encourage, uplift and honor you by sharing the sunshine and sorrows of your profession. This collection of true stories champions your daily contributions, commitments and sacrifices, and portrays the compassion, intellect and wit necessary to meet your ever-challenging demands. Chances are you didn't choose to be a nurse because of the great hours, pay or working conditions! Stories from student nurses will help you recall why you entered this profession; stories from seasoned nurses reveal why you stay. Some stories reflect en the "good old days; all of them will give you hope for the future.
**This book review may contain spoilers**
I don't usually read nonfiction books and prefer novels, but this one isn't a fictional story-- I borrowed this book from a friend who reads a lot of nonfiction, and I'm glad I got my hands on it. A part of the famous Chicken Soup series, this set of true stories touching on nurses and their sacrifices and commitment is heartwarming and witty. As all Chicken Soup books do, this one contained a diverse of range of great stories that took me through many emotions, ranging from warm fuzzy feeling to cracking up in laughter to sorrow.
Although there were 101 stories in the book, one that I remember vividly is one that came up early in the book-- it was about a homeless family with a single mother and four young kids who had come to the hospital on Christmas. The nurses working the shift were initially frustrated that they couldn't spend their Christmas at home, but it was soon found that the family were not sick at all but just wanted a warm place to rest and spend the Christmas at. The compassion all the nurses had shone through as the nurses brought the family free meals claimed from the cafeteria, gave them presents of bits and pieces of goodies they had lying around, and the nurses each took turns visiting the family on their lunch breaks. Eventually the nurses were able to find a shelter that could take them in on the day and provide them with some long term help.
Stories like these brought warm smiles to my face and made me marvel at the quick miracle of compassion the nurses were able to set up for the family. There were many other episodes like this, but each all had their own unique story of inspiration and love for virtual strangers. Another story was just a two-page-long collection of ironic and funny miscommunication moments, such as a humorous encounter between a patient and a nurse that I still remember:
"Hi nurse, I got new hearing aids! I can hear well now!"
"That's great! what kind is it?"
"10:30 AM!"
Just like this, there are many funny, heartwarming, and inspiring stories in the book-- some of them might seem hard to believe, but in general they are all great and uplifting-- exactly what the book says it does.
As good as it was, as a non-nurse I wasn't always able to emphasize with the situations in the story, and that was a little disappointing, but that was to be expected given that the main audience of this book is nurses. This book would be a great gift to anybody in the nursing profession, though.
All in all this was a very warm collection of stories, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. There are heartwarming episodes, stories that leave you asphyxiated from laughter, and gutwrenchingly sad stories, all of which serve to make readers understand the social and experiential aspect of nurses in a good way.
I would recommend this book for grade 5 and up, this would be good for inspiring somebody to become a nurse and the only limit would be the vocabulary.
Rating: I would give this a 4.5/5 - a great collection of stories and wonderful as a gift.
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