The story of nursing is woven into war, plague, religion, the economy, and our individual lives. In Taking Care, Sarah DiGregorio chronicles the lives of nurses past and tells the stories of those today--caregivers at the vital intersection of health care and community who are changing the world, often invisibly.
That the book challenges pervasive cultural stereotypes of nurses — dispatching with the image of the brow-mopping angel — is a literary relief ... DiGregorio’s storytelling is pitch-perfect ... Taking Care never shouts. It doesn’t need to. But there is quiet anger on every page, especially in the wake of political shifts that render caregiving harder than ever ... Camaraderie on the front lines — the teamwork between nurses, physicians and allied health professionals — felt like an omission ... But perhaps there is strength in DiGregorio’s outsider status. The scope of nursing described here, and the diversity of nurses giving accounts, might not have been possible otherwise.
Uniquely fresh and expansive ... DiGregorio succeeds in offering a new, eye-opening perspective on the significance of nursing and nurses’ power to better lives.
