When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough Stories of Nurses Standing Up for Themselves, Their Patients, and Their Profession. Suzanne Gordon, editor. 2010 Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Hardcover, 250 pages, $24.95.
In honor of the nurses and their work in caring for the injured, killed, and families in the January, 2011, Tucson Tragedy in Tucson, many providers, physicians, hospitals, and first responders who played a crucial role in saving lives, including Gabrielle Giffords, our Southwest Congressman, this book could be their story. For Gabby and others, the system worked, near to perfection. Their stories will be told in many ways. But for now, this book reflects the many nurses, who every day engage in triumphs and struggles to deliver patient care in a sometimes not so perfect world.
Suzanne Gordon, a journalist and visiting Professor at the University of Maryland, has written about nursing over the last 20 years. What sparked this book was not only the scientific and technical knowledge necessary to nursing but also the many obstacles nurses face in delivering patient care. The author wanted to capture the dialogue she had with nurses around the world regarding how solace books, emotional television shows, and movies alone do little for nurses serving in real-life hospitals, nursing homes, schools of nursing, and other settings.
"Chicken Soup-" has 9 parts, each with stories from more than 71 nurses from around the world. Stories are told in the first-person narrative from the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Iceland, and others. There is no index to reference the continuing work of scholars such as Diana Mason, so only a few selected comments are offered.
The stories are short (not more than 2-3 pages) and are an easy read. These are not research based but are in fact actual experiences as told by the nurses themselves. Unfortunately, many of us will recognize the not so good stories. There are stories of violence in the ER[AQ1], negotiating with obstinate physicians and surgeons for antibiotics that are not out of date or anti-inflammation medicine for patients with unresolved pain. Nurses hold knowledge specific to these areas and yet are still ignored. Minimally, nurse leaders may want to read some of these as the stories you do not want told about your hospital or health care organization. Many of the untoward incidences could have been addressed by confident leadership, a strong nursing culture, and good physicians who appreciate nurses who speak up.
The first story was particularly pleasing and was written by a new nurse manager who had the guts to show up at the home of a spinal surgeon who held monthly journal club meetings for all the spinal surgeons. She had been successful at being allowed to attend the orthopedic rounds and in fact was given 5 minutes to address nursing concerns. The spinal surgeons were not so easy to join. After inviting herself to the meeting, she attended for 4 months, sitting and quietly listening. At the end of the fourth month, they invited her to present at the next meeting, which she did on the nurses' observations and her research on how well patients did on a specific drug postsurgery. After that she became a regular at the monthly meetings. Our front line managers are our futures. How good it is for us they are speaking up.
Fortunately professional nursing is, in fact, addressing these issues through improving work environments and empowering nursing staff toward self-governance. Certainly, with the aid of nurse researchers and programs like Magnet, we are making headway. For us in Tucson, and the hospitals that cared for the victims of that terrible tragedy, all of the right elements were in place before the incident. And the intensive care unit nurse who cared for our injured congresswoman sat with Michelle Obama as an invited guest at the State of the Union. These are the stories you want to hear and need to share. Regis Philbin spoke about his experience after his open heart surgery. Certainly, he praised his surgeons, but he also addressed millions of people, about how it was the nurses who got him through 24 hours a day. Those messages are getting out. Nonetheless, this author is reminding us we still have work to do.
Elizabeth (Betty) Falter, MS, RN, CNAA-BC
President, Falter & Associates Inc, Tucson, Arizona