As a trauma neurosurgeon, I have witnessed the compassion, the work ethic, and the selflessness of our nurses in countless situations. They save our lives every day and represent the true life blood of any hospital. Their stories are given the respect they deserve and are captured beautifully in E.R. Nurses.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent, CNN

"James Patterson's account of the twilight world between life and death that nurses inhabit is one of the most moving things I have ever read. In their own bullet-straight words, these heroes describe the pain, the love, and the brutally hard work of trying to save people's lives. I could not stop reading it and when I was done I felt like I was changed forever." —Sebastian Junger, author of Freedom, Tribe, War, Fire, and The Perfect Storm

“E.R. Nurses captures the beating heart of nursing: the lives lost and saved, the hard tragedies and unbelievable miracles, and how every day nurses show up, give their all for patients, and then do it over and over and over again, all while holding onto their empathy and humanity. Readers will be stunned and moved by this no-holds-barred portrait of nurses' essential and deeply meaningful work.”—Theresa Brown, PhD, RN, author of the New York Times bestseller The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives

“These readable bite-sized snippets represent a significant caregiver demographic of women and men who exhibit the labor-intensive focus, compassion, dedication, and passion necessary to be an emergency nurse. From the heartfelt to the tragic, this book displays the nursing profession in all its unsung glory. A timely tribute to the modern-day heroes of medicine, conveyed in their own words.”—Kirkus

“Thriller legend James Patterson has compiled hundreds of interviews for his poignant and timely nonfiction recounting of the dramatic, dangerous, and professional lives of America’s nurses.”—Parade

"James Patterson and Matt Eversmann have captured the essence and drama of what it takes to be a nurse. Sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes frightening, give this book to someone who is thinking of being a nurse or is one already."—The Florida-Times Union

2021-08-24
Dispatches from the front lines of emergency nursing.

In this follow-up to the similarly structured Walk in My Combat Boots, Patterson and Eversmann present brief but meaningful first-person narratives that illustrate the true realities of nursing “at the center of it all.” Split into sections representing their clinical shifts, the contributors vary by location, gender, and care experience. The authors open with a harrowing narrative deep dive within the “horrific” first wave of Covid-19 in which four infected patients perished during one nurse’s shift. Her closing sentiments are echoed by many throughout the book: “My years in nursing have taught me resiliency.” Another common theme is the chaotic frenzy of emergency departments. One contributor calls her Detroit hospital, which plays host to a barrage of extreme situations, the “Wild West of nursing,” while another recalls a visit by Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who had just begun his groundbreaking work in euthanasia. Others remember purposefully violating hospital policy to hold a patient’s hand or allow a wife to bring a dying husband’s dog to the ICU. The book is packed with gut-wrenching scenes and a kaleidoscope of emotions. In one heartbreaking scene, a terrified Covid patient, suffering from “guppy breathing,” is met by fully masked and gowned nurses, who later note how the pandemic has caused “a major shift in medical treatment. The human touch is almost gone.” There are happy outcomes, trivial clinical missteps, cantankerous patients (says one nurse, “certain patients are just dicks”), and situations so stressful and bizarre that they can’t help but elicit exasperated laughter. These readable bite-sized snippets represent a significant caregiver demographic of women and men who exhibit the labor-intensive focus, compassion, dedication, and passion necessary to be an emergency nurse. From the heartfelt to the tragic, this book displays the nursing profession in all its unsung glory.

A timely tribute to the modern-day heroes of medicine, conveyed in their own words.