5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2024

This delightful book, a compilation of anecdotes and stories spanning the author’s 40-year career as a nurse, is a must read, especially for those who have worked in some capacity in the medical field. Having been employed as an ER technician and a unit secretary in a Level I trauma center and having spent numerous years as a volunteer EMT in my community, I found the book to be captivating—a real page-turner and difficult to put down. As I was reading, I felt the author’s heart and soul and heard her voice as she told her stories, which ran the gamut from patient encounters, to relationships with medical staff and hospital personnel, to depictions of the grueling, stressful environment in which nurses work each and every day. At the beginning of book, the author speaks of her “mantras” and defines specific terms, “Robinisms,” that she had coined during her years working as a nurse. The mantras are thematic and provide the framework of the book, and the author’s coined phrases appear throughout the read. Out of her respect for her patients’ privacy and her desire to protect the anonymity of her co-workers, the author creates clever, often hilarious names for the characters in her stories. Periodically, she interjects personal anecdotes regarding her family, pets, upbringing, her “call” to nursing, and the need to keep Florence Nightingale relevant in today’s nursing environment. Her stories contain commentary on the decline of professionalism and the unfortunate state of affairs in today’s healthcare industry. And she poignantly embraces the concepts of following one’s own path and living one’s truth. The author’s writing is spot-on, as I found myself involuntarily nodding my head in agreement as I kept reading story after story. I laughed out loud and shed a few tears. In short, this book, written from the author’s heart, is unique in its presentation, is funny, is sad, and is thoroughly entertaining. I did not want the book to end.