Condition Critical

by Echo Heron

Book Overview

"ENTERTAINING...GRITTY, BEHIND-THE-SCENES DETAILS OF HOSPITAL OPERATIONS." --Booklist "In the prologue of this book, Echo Heron, RN, states: Nurses are able to do what they do because they are rich in the gifts of healing, compassion and love. She then goes on to illustrate that statement with 18 chapters of amusing and moving true stories of her career in critical care and in the emergency room." --Chicago Tribune "Heron gives a voice to her fellow...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449907821
• ISBN13: 9780449907825
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: Fawcett
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

mandatory critical nursing read

So far this is the only book that I have read by Heron but its indeed the best picture of the critical care nurse's work life. Incompetent physicians, critical patients, demanding families, lazy co-workers, and of course the constant surprises, are all highlighted in hilarious quips. I love how Heron makes nursing sound as challenging as it is. I have been working critical care for only a short time but its amazing the power that your knowledge has over determining a person's outcome. Heron highlights different scenarios and what interventions she had to do to make sure that the patient's condition improved. She is an extraordinary nurse and an excellent author. This book would rattle many would be nurses, while getting an appreciative nod from experienced ones. Its a great book and Heron should be proud of this work. It really shows people how hard nurses work and that there is a lot of compassion in this field.

Wonderful!

This book is great. It really gives a very accurate portryal of what a "real nurse" is and does. A great addition to any nurses book collection that you should read over and over again throughout your nursing career. We all can relate to her tales of a typical shift.

Condition Critical

This review comes from a non-reader. I read only if it keeps me reading. I read Intensive Care after a co-worker had given it to me and found a common bond with Echo Heron having been there myself. I bought Condition Critical when it first came out and she did it again. I left a hospital after the "assistants" came to help with our staffing problems. In this book, she tells it like it is and stands up for nursing--I wish she was still nursing and writing. We need nurses who can say what needs to be said and let the public know what's going on. All her books are entertaining and the real life one's are so funny, many a time I was laughing out loud!!

Excellent, but read 'Intensive Care' first

This is the sequel, as it were to Echo Hero's first biographical volume 'Intensive Care' and for the most part, continues in the same entertaining vein. I really symathised through the account of her burn-out, but felt the attraction for me dwindling during the Monserrat section of the book. None the less, definitely worth reading.

A moving and accurate description of medicine's front line.

Echo Heron's novel proves an excellent read for anyone in health care or interested in health care. With a perfect blend of the human as well as, administrative side Ms. Heron moves the reader sometimes with tears other times with anger. A must read for anyone who wants to make a difference and care for their fellow mankind.