MixedNew York Times Book ReviewBrown mines her time as a nurse for insights into the health care system’s flaws, never shying away from her own shortcomings ... In between her searing critiques, Brown offers glimpses of how things might go if only medical workers saw beyond the tasks at hand and had more time and fewer tasks to manage ... Brown writes that universal health care, improved electronic health record-keeping and a fully nonprofit system are what’s needed to create space and time for more compassion in American medicine. However, at less than a single page, Brown’s prescription for improvement is so brief as to be unconvincing. While her prose is easy to understand, the multitude and length of the chapters in Healing — 39 in all, each two to eight pages — can feel disjointed. At times, attempts to be clever fall short ... With her newly acquired 360-degree perspective on medical care, one can’t help feeling disappointed that Brown, the nurse, is no longer walking the halls of a hospital or dashing from one hospice appointment to the next, ready to put her newfound wisdom to work for patients.
