Life Support |
|
Click here
for praise for Life Support Nursing's critical role in dealing with illness, aging, and death has long been undervalued and over looked. Now, it's directly threatened by medical industry cost cutting, competition, and managed care. As the debate about the policy continues to rage, Suzanne Gordon has written a vivid account of life on the front lines of care. Life Support offers an intimate and important look of what nurses do for patients and their families. It takes us right to the bedside on hospital wards and home visits, in clinics and emergency rooms, capturing the drama of nurses' work in the story of three RNs at Boston 's Beth Israel Hospital. Gordon's heroines are nurse practitioner Ellen Kitchen, who bicycles through poor neighborhoods in Boston to visit elderly patients at home; oncology nurse Nancy Rumplik, whose technical skill and emotional support enable cancer patients to endure some of the most arduous high-tech medical treatments; and clinical nurse specialist Jeannie Chaisson, who helps new RNs and physicians begin their careers on a general medical floor. Life Support draws on the experience of these and other nurses to examine the history of their profession, the complex relationship between doctors and nurses, and the central role that nurses play in the final days of life, when care, not cure, is a patient 's main concern. In addition, the book makes a powerful critique of hospital restructuring
and managed care. A veteran investigative reporter and health care specialist, Suzanne Gordon is a skillful guide to the myriad problems facing our health care system today. Praise for Life Support "Life Support is medicine
at its most thrilling. Gordon's moving prose demystifies the profession
of nursing and justifiably glorifies it. We all have been — or
will be — their patients. And
that truth makes Life Support must reading for every one of
us." "Life Support is a gripping
description of how crucial well-trained nurses are to the well-being
of patiens in hospitals and elsewhere. It documents how managed (mangled)
care and its obedient servant — hospital cost cutting — are
beginning to literally pull the plug on this life support. The next
time you are scheduled to be hospitalized, this book will help you
raise questions that may save your life" "I work with nurses every day but It took Suzanne Gordon to
open my eyes to see all they do and how Important—and underappreciated —their
work is. Life Support should be required
reading for all doctors, health policy decision-makers, and anyone
else who cares about the future of our health care system.” “Gripping and politically important” "Suzanne Gordon shows us why nursing matters. That is a profound
achievement in a world in which most 'women's work' is still invisible,
marginal, or misunderstood. Pass it on!" "Suzanne Gordon has written a compelling book uncovering hidden
truths about health care reform. This book is a clarion call." "Life Support brings the
reader into the hectic, frustrating, and sometimes heartbreaking world
of the nurse. Ms. Gordon has ventured behind the closed doors and into
the lives of three nurses. |
 Order this book |
     |