- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
“DiGregorio’s storytelling is pitch-perfect; narrative and nursing, she understands, come from the same place and both are concerned with a deep understanding of character and plot….This is a brilliant book, and DiGregorio is a beautiful writer. Taking Care deserves to be on the reading list for nursing and medical schools, and on the bedside table of all politicians."—New York Times Book Review
In this sweeping cultural history of nursing from the Stone Age to the present, the critically acclaimed author of Early pays homage to the profession and makes an urgent call for change.
Nurses have always been vital to human existence. A nurse was likely there when you were born and a nurse might well be there when you die. Familiar in hospitals and doctors’ offices, these dedicated health professionals can also be found in schools, prisons, and people’s homes; at summer camps; on cruise ships, and even at NASA. Yet despite being celebrated during the Covid-19 epidemic, nurses are often undermined and undervalued in ways that reflect misogyny and racism, and that extend to their working conditions—and affect the care available to everyone. But the potential power of nursing to create a healthier, more just world endures.
The story of nursing is complicated. It is woven into war, plague, religion, the economy, and our individual lives in myriad ways. In Taking Care, journalist 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 actively changing the world, often invisibly. An absorbing and empathetic work that combines storytelling with nuanced reporting, Taking Care examines how we have always tried to care for each other—the incredible ways we have succeeded and the ways in which we have failed. Fascinating, empowering and significant, it is a call for change and a love letter to the nurses of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Author’s Note
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Origins: To Nurse Is to Be Human: Reclaiming a History
- Chapter 2: Hierarchy: The Making of a Big Lie: Essentially Female, Always Subordinate
- Chapter 3: Identity: Who Is a Nurse? The Wartime Struggle for the Right to Care
- Chapter 4: Community: Libraries, Church Basements, and Tenement Houses: Nursing at Work in Everyday Lives
- Chapter 5: Endings: Nursing Beyond Cures: The Radical Promise of Hospice
- Chapter 6: Autonomy: The Fight for Choices: A Complicated Story of Nurses, Birth Control, and Abortion
- Chapter 7: Environment: Seeing the Future: Nursing in a Swiftly Changing Climate
- Chapter 8: Addiction: Staying Alive: How Radical Acceptance Can Transform Substance Use Care
- Chapter 9: Collective: No Angels: Nursing as Labor
- Chapter 10: Power: Taking Charge: What We All Gain When Good Nurses Govern
- Epilogue: Love in Action
- Acknowledgments
- Selected Bibliography
- Notes
- Index
- About the Author
- Also by Sarah DiGregorio
- Copyright
- About the Publisher