Nightingale Tales: Stories from My Life as a Nurse

(Paperback)

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Description

In the 1950s, nurses served as handmaidens to the physician; by the start of the new millennium, they had become admired independent practitioners. Nightingale Tales is a peek into that transition, as told by a nurse who lived it. Each chapter is a stand-alone story depicting the ridiculous mores nurses have been subjected to over the years, the archaic equipment theyve had to struggle with, and the changes in the profession, brought about by time, the feminist movement, and advances in technology. Told with humor and compassion, the stories of Nightingale Tales provides an unusualand highly entertainingwindow into the world of medicine from the mid-twentieth century to the present.

Reviews

Im a doctor and I know that nursing is key to medicine, maybe even at its core. And in Lynn Dow's Nightingale Tales we get to find out from a modest, spunky, liquor-enjoying old nurse what it was like to be a nurse during the past half century. Her tales are short, well-told, and of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Victoria Sweet, MD, author of Gods Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine A delightful, informative look at nursing through the eyes of Lynn Dow. This book gives us a behind-the-scenes slice of the authors escapades during her fifty-year career as a nurse, as well as insights into a profession that has leapt from human observation to technology. Laura Deutsch, author of Writing from the Senses

Author Bio

Lynn Dow, is a registered nurse who spent fifty years in the profession in a variety of positionsstaff nurse, head nurse, teacher, and mentorat large medical centers on both the East and West Coasts. Now retired, she has finally found the time to write about her experiences. She lives with her husband in San Francisco.