Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2015
272 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
This remarkable book does for nurses what writers such as Atul Gawande and Abraham Verghese have done for doctors, and at shift's end, we have learned something profound about hope and healing.
A moving story unfolds in real time as practicing nurse and New York Times columnist Theresa Brown reveals the individual struggles as well as the larger truths about medicine in this country. She lets us experience all the life that happens in just one day in a busy teaching hospital's oncology ward. In the span of twelve hours, lives can be lost, life-altering treatment decisions made, and dreams fulfilled or irrevocably stolen. Every day, Theresa Brown holds these lives in her hands. On this day there are four.
There is Mr. Hampton, a patient with lymphoma to whom Brown is charged with administering a powerful drug that could cure him - or kill him; Sheila, who may have been dangerously misdiagnosed; Candace, a returning patient who arrives (perhaps advisedly) with her own disinfectant wipes, cleansing rituals, and demands; and Dorothy, who after six weeks in the hospital may finally go home. Prioritizing and ministering to their needs takes the kind of skill, sensitivity, and, yes, humor that enable a nurse to be a patient's most ardent advocate in a medical system marked by heartbreaking dysfunction as well as miraculous successes.
"Starred Review. Books about nurses abound, but this meticulous, absorbing shift-in-the-life account of one nurse's day on a cancer ward stands out for its honesty, clarity, and heart." - Publishers Weekly
"An empathetic and absorbing narrative as riveting as a TV drama." - Kirkus
"This book can be enjoyed by all readers. Nursing students and professionals will appreciate the humor and will understand the situations involved." - Library Journal
"Compelling and compassionate human drama. If you want to understand how modern medicine ticks, fasten your seat belt and spend a day in the hospital with Theresa Brown on The Shift." - Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of What Doctors Feel
"Written from the perspective of an immensely talented, insightful nurse, The Shift is extremely moving and inspiring. Brown makes me so proud to be a nurse." - Claire M. Fagin, PhD, RN, Dean Emerita, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
"Theresa Brown's exacting and riveting way of telling a story evokes an empathy that is overwhelming. The ability to capture the joy when an individual survives cancer and the sorrow when they do not is a talent that Theresa has perfected. A truly memorable read." - Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD, RN, Dean and Professor, Columbia University School of Nursing
"Nursing needs more participant/observers like Theresa Brown who can give such eloquent voice to a profession long overshadowed by medicine but no less essential to the care of patients."- Suzanne Gordon, author of Beyond the Checklist.
"The Shift captures the juxtaposition of pragmatism and idealism, compassion and clinical objectivity, humor and heartache that exist simultaneously in the life of clinical nurses everywhere."- Barbara L. Summers, Nursing Department Chair, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas
"The Shift is the ultimate fly-on-the-wall experience. Theresa Brown has succeeded in serving up a thoroughly engrossing view of the everyday in an American hospital. I got so caught up in her stories that I was late for my shift at the hospital." - Dr. Pauline W. Chen, author of Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
"Having been a patient on the transplant floor, I am filled with awe and gratitude for the work that the nurses like Theresa Brown do every day. She captures perfectly their central role in any patient's life!" - Susan M. Love, M.D., Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and author of Dr Susan Love's Breast Book
This information about The Shift was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Theresa Brown, RN, works as a clinical nurse. Her regular column appears on the New York Times opinion pages as well as on the Times Opinionator blog. She has also been a contributor to the popular "Well" section of that paper and writes for CNN.com and other national media.
Brown received her BSN from the University of Pittsburgh and, during what she calls her past life, a PhD in English from the University of Chicago. Before becoming a nurse she taught English at Tufts University. Today, her focus is medical oncology and end-of-life issues. She lectures nationally, is a board member of the Center for Health Media and Policy at the Bellevue School of Nursing at Hunter College. Brown was a panelist for the TEDMED's Great Challenges of Health and Medicine initiative and is also involved in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Flip the Clinic" initiative and an advisory board member for Scrubs Magazine. She lives with her husband and three children in Pennsylvania.
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