A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care

by Jennifer Culkin

Book Overview

A critical care and emergency flight nurse, Jennifer Culkin is no stranger to death and its dramas, or the urgency that accompanies them. Her memoir plunges us into the chaos of emergency medicine at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807073296
• ISBN13: 9780807073292
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Thoughtful and intimate memoir about caring for the critically ill

I read this book in less than 2 days. I don't know the author but work with flight nurses on a daily basis. Every chapter has a different feel. Some are extremely personal about dealing with her parents, her siblings, feelings about her children and parenting and especially touching is the one about her struggles with multiple sclerosis. Other terrific chapters trace why and how her parents came to their own, very different, conclusions about end-of-life issues. As a health care provider as well, I especially appreciated her insights about how people who work with critically ill patients have quite different approach to dealing with illness when people we love get sick. Chapters on aging parents should be required reading for anyone over 60! Finally, her writing style is lovely -- I re-read multiple sentences just because they were so thoughtful.

Page Turner

I loved this book and hated for it to end. Every nurse can relate to Jennifer's experiences as she recounts them in such a wonderful writing style. I hope that she will tell us more soon, great job for a first book.

Parallel Life

As someone who has experienced life similarities, minus the diagnosis of MS, I find Ms. Culkin's memoir eerily accurate in facts, feelings, and experiences. She clearly vasillates between the searing emotion of her own dying parents, (as the only child with medical knowledge) and the connections made with parents of dying children. The flight team memories touched my heart. Please keep writing.

The Book I Couldn't Put Down - My Highest Recommendation

While I love memoirs and creative non-fiction essays, what I don't love is the world of medicine, doctors, and nurses, so I was surprised to find myself unable to stop reading Jennifer Culkin's first book. I read it in 2 days and it was one of my favorite reads of the year. What I loved about it was the author's honesty and ability to weave her life as a flight nurse in with stories of her childhood and her family life. She speaks to the difficulty of caring for elderly parents (in this case, two who feel they are doing quite well on their own), the family struggles with siblings, and she does it with honestly, not trying to hide that everything is less than perfect, she makes no excuses for herself, but speaks to the reader as a friend--this is how it was. And throughout the book, there is the author's wit. While the book does deal with difficult subjects, she is able to guide the reader through her book with her incredible forward-moving narrative as well as her ability to see the humor in unfunny situations. The book is moving, dark, funny, honest, and gives the reader the inside scoop on what life is like for a flight nurse. I know how many times I've seen the medic helicopters go by my house with no idea what these people do and how they do it. It's an interesting look into a side of the medical world that isn't included on Grey's Anatomy or really, anywhere. And while I am not someone who reads medical memoirs, I connected with this one in many ways. And as I said, I couldn't put it down and I was interested in Culkin's thoughts and stories. What a treat to have such a strong new voice in the creative non-fiction/memoir world. I can now only hope I don't have too long to wait until her next book.

Critical Care in Human Terms

A Final Arc of Sky is a very well written book about the professional life of a helicopter flight nurse.I have always said there was no need to make up stories, because the REAL ones are so interesting. Leslie RN