Nurses and Their Patients

You don't have to be a nurse to enjoy these 14 short stories about situations I've encountered in my 40 year community health nursing career. They are about everyday people meeting important life challenges. Some of the characters will remind you of persons you know. All of the stories are fictionalized components of patients, families, and nurses I have known. You will meet Nadia, who fought with the Polish Underground in WWII. She immigrates to Detroit and struggles to adapt to the American way of life. The Detroit riots of 1967 throw her into an emotional tailspin, and she is hospitalized for post traumatic stress disorder. Greg, an oncology nurse, loses his son in a boating accident and must come to terms with the after effects of grief and guilt. Carletta, a high school student, lives in poverty in the inner city and sells drugs to support her mother and two younger sisters. Kirsten lives in an upper middle class suburb. Through her volunteer work, she learns she has more in common with inner city women than she first realizes. The stories show the dynamics of family relationships and their connection to the society-at-large. The focus is health--physical, emotional, and spiritual--and the challenges people overcome to make permanent changes in their lives.