Intensive Care: The Story of a Nurse

I enjoyed this book and the insight into nursing from Echo’s perspective. I felt like the beginning, as a student and first into her new grad years are well done, concise and easy to follow. The way she writes is captivating, her retelling of conversations and emotion struggles are realistic and have made me laugh out loud at certain points. The book starts to dissolve after her rendition of burnout and should have gone through a few more versions of editing. It was still entrancing enough for me want to follow her and keep reading her work; I have enjoyed her as an author and enjoy the growth both in her nursing and in her writing through out her work.

Ms. Heron writes a very realistic portrait of working in the ER and ICU of a hospital in San Francisco in the 1980's. She writes of her struggles as a single Mom with a young son and her struggle to balance the demands of motherhood with the daily demands of her nursing job. Ms. Heron is very driven in her efforts to work not only in the ICU, but later volunteers to also be on call in the ER - which in itself is extremely demanding and taxing. Ms. Heron's writing flows quite easily and she explains all the medical terminology as well as the illnesses and/or reasons that a variety of patients happen to either be in the ER and/or the ICU. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the life of a nurse and because I have some background in the nursing profession, I think a medical professional would find the book to be very interesting.

It was an amazing autobiography. I finished reading it within a week. It really showed how much sacrifices nurses make, how daunting there tasks could be, and how painful it is to be one. But in the end its worth fighting for and fulfillung to be one. I want to be a nurse, so im willing to go through what she went through so that i could be a little part of what i could offer to the people.

A bit of almost PTSD. We nurses really do see more than we even realize and do way more than people think.

When I finished this book I couldn't figure out whether I was inspired or depressed about a profession I have such great respect for. I was going to give it to one of my nieces who is currently starting nursing school but then I was afraid it would scare her too much! I did enjoy the book and plan on reading her second one. It was an easy read but I thought there were too many references to her dreams and incidents from childhood but I suspect those memories influenced Ms. Heron and the choices she made. A good book overall for those that are either in the profession or people like myself who have always had an interest in it.

Good quality for an older book. I bought this for my daughter, who is going into nursing school. I had read this book before and look forward to reading other books she wrote. Very intense experiences, but she sheds a true light on the role of a nurse starting out in a hospital and the realities of every day life as well.

I disagree with the reviewer that said you need to be a nurse to understand this excellent book.... I am far from being in the medical field and I had no trouble following all the details. I found this book to be something I found myself thinking about during the day when I could not find the time to read it and I wondered about all the people Echo talks about in the book. I cared about them and what happened. Several times I cried and smiled. This book was written years ago and still it resonates today with relevant, timeless "everyman" struggles with life, death, happiness, children.... you name it. I liked this book so much I was relieved to see the author had written others.... which is why I'm back, to order more.Highly recommend.

This is an amazing book, highly recommend it to anyone in nursing school or considering going to nursing school. Wonderful writing!

This book was well worth buying and would buy more like this, as very factual, and interesting.

Parts of this book are good but it just goes off into so many tangents I lost track of what it was even about at times.

A decent length book as so many of these medical type ones are so short. kept making time to read it as so good - excellent balance of nursing fly on the wall and personal life - a fantastic read, well recomended

Superb. Direct and plain spoken.

a brilliant book had me hooked from the start. Can highly recommend this author, and will be on the lookout for anymore of her books.