'An inspiring book for our challenging times' Olivia Coleman Nurses have never been more important. We benefit from their expertise in our hospitals and beyond: in our schools, on our streets, in prisons, hospices and care homes. When we feel most alone, nurses remind us that we are not alone at all. In The Courage to Care bestselling author Christie Watson reveals the remarkable extent of nurses' work: - A community mental-health nurse choreographs support for a man suffering from severe depression - A teen with stab wounds is treated by the critical-care team; his school nurse visits and he drops the bravado - A pregnant woman loses frightening amounts of blood following a car accident; it is a military nurse who synchronises the emergency department into immaculate order and focus. Christie makes a further discovery: that, time and again, it is patients and their families - including her own - who show exceptional strength in the most challenging times. We are all deserving of compassion, and as we share in each other's suffering, Christie Watson shows us how we can find courage too. The courage to care. 'Let's be thankful for wonderful nurses - and writers - like Christie Watson' Jacqueline Wilson 'Christie Watson writes with the fullness of her heart to give us insight into the world of patients and nursing, inspiring us to recognise it is how we treat people, how we speak and respond to them, as well as what we do, that heals' Julia Samuel

The reassuring bromides of "chicken soup for the soul" provide little solace for nurses and the people they serve in real-life hospitals, nursing homes, schools of nursing, and other settings. In the minefield of modern health care, there are myriad obstacles to quality patient care including work overload, inadequate funds for nursing education and research, and poor communication between and within the professions, to name only a few. The seventy RNs whose stories are collected here by the award-winning journalist Suzanne Gordon know that effective advocacy isn't easy. It takes nurses willing to stand up for themselves, their coworkers, their patients, and the public.

When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough brings together compelling personal narratives from a wide range of nurses from across the globe. The assembled profiles in professional courage provide new insight into the daily challenges that RNs face in North America and abroad and how they overcome them with skill, ingenuity, persistence, and individual and collective advocacy at work and in the community. In this collection, we meet RNs working at the bedside, providing home care, managing hospital departments, teaching and doing research, lobbying for quality patient care, and campaigning for health care reform.

Their stories are funny, sad, deeply moving, inspiring, and always revealing of the different ways that nurses make their voices heard in the service of their profession. The risks and rewards, joys and sorrows, of nursing have rarely been captured in such vivid first-person accounts. Gordon and the authors of the essays contained in this book have much to say about the strengths and shortcomings of health care today and the role that nurses play as irreplaceable agents of change."

Current mainstream books and publicity about management and administration in health care are concerned with the takeover of health care by managed-care organizations. Many provide lots of quick and externally focused answers. Many of them are economically driven, to the exclusion of humans, values, ethics, and the human spirit of all those who pass through systems as deliverers and receivers of care. On the other hand, there is a new generation of works that address new forms of administration and leadership-works that inspire and evoke foundational changes in health care and forms of organizational leadership and management. This work by Dr. Jan Nyberg is guided by a lifelong career of administration and management that is informed by deeper human dimensions of caring, and more lasting approaches to change than quick-fix, economic takeovers.

Jan Nyberg, an experienced nursing administrator, scholar, and educator, knows another way-from the inside out rather than the outside in. She brings forth her wisdom and knowledge, experiences, and insights so that others may now grasp another way to transform systems for delivery of human caring and healing. This work informs, instructs, and inspires; it invites nurse leaders and other health administrators to reach for what might be, rather than succumbing to what already is.

Compelling, timely, and essential reading for healthcare providers, "Meaning in Suffering" addresses the multiplicity of meanings suffering brings to all it touches: patients, families, health workers, and human science professionals. Examining suffering in writing that is both methodologically rigorous and accessible, the contributors preserve first-hand experiences using narrative ethnography, existential hermeneutics, hermeneutic phenomenology, and traditional ethnography. They offer nuanced insights into suffering as a human condition experienced by persons deserving of dignity, empathy, and understanding. Collectively, these essays demonstrate that understanding the suffering of the "other" reveals something vital about the moral courage required to heal--and stay humane--in the face of suffering. Winner, Nursing Research Category, "American Journal of Nursing"

How do we know we are ill? Are health, illness and disability universal categories? How important is the body in our understanding of health? These crucial questions are just some of the issues tackled in this comprehensive and insightful new book. Embodying Health Identities offers a fundamental account of the sociology of health, exploring the relationship between health and identity through a focus on embodiment. Bringing together existing literature with new cutting edge theories, the authors investigate the implications of the body on our experiences of health and illness and its role in how health, illness and identity relate to each other. The text begins by outlining the key concepts of health and illness, and then continues with an exploration of the social factors which impact on health and a consideration of the journey of illness, from causation to treatment, across the life course. Throughout the text, theoretical arguments are effectively illustrated with contemporary examples taken from every day life and a diverse range of cultures. Written by two reputed authors in the field, this accessible text offers stimulating and refreshing reading for all students of the sociology and anthropology of health.

Risk and Nursing Practice introduces the reader to a range of sociological theory that has arisen about the 'risk society'. Theories about risk and society are specifically related to aspects of health care and nursing practice that have become highly thematic, such as violence against nurses, techniques of risk assessment and risk management.

This introductory text encourages the application of sociological insights in health care. Health processes and outcomes are analyzed in terms of social difference, inequality, opportunities and life chances. Key sociological concepts and theories are introduced by using practical exercises and an active learning approach. The book is written in an accessible style so that it can be used as a course text but should also appeal to individual readers at all levels in their career. The book is for those on degree and diploma courses in nursing and midwifery, health studies, health promotion and sports sciences; and healthcare practitioners including midwives, health visitors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and health promotion officers.

Provides students with insights into key contemporary debates and events to demonstrate the relevance of sociology and its practical application to modern nursing. This textbook helps student nurses make the leap from a narrow focus on the physical problems of their patients to a broader understanding of the whole person and the contexts of care which will help them succeed as compassionate nurses. Written directly for nurses, it focuses on the individuals and families in their care, the organisations they work in, and the factors which affect their practice. Key features include: Case studies and scenarios to help students relate sociology to real-life examples Reflection points to help students critically engage with the discussion Learning outcomes and chapter summaries for revision Definitions of key terms in each chapter

What is dementia? How should we organize dementia care? This comprehensive book critically examines the main approaches to understanding dementia (bio-medical, social-psychological and socio-gerontological) and the main principles and ideologies of care. The book: * provides clarity on the gap between the utopian aspirations of care and the reality of care * opens up a series of questions about knowledge and treatment of dementia * argues for a transition from positions that place emphasis upon the individual or particular care services to the social, cultural and economic context Lively, informative and challenging, the book will be of interest to students of nursing, sociology of health & illness, social work and social gerontology. Anthea Innes teaches at the Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling

This comprehensive and much-needed resource is for professionals and students in social care, who are required to engage with the spiritual dimension of their therapeutic work with clients. The authors, who include social workers, mental health professionals, religious professionals and academics, show how they have developed ways of applying their own and their clients' spirituality in their practice. They describe their work in an international range of human service contexts including: * working with grief and loss * community development work * working across cultures * social justice work * social work teaching and learning. The client groups they cover include children, older people, individuals with learning disabilities, and ethnic minority and indigenous groups. Drawing on theological and philosophical ideas from different cultures, this much-needed resource gives guidance on and examples of practice that together enable the reader to explore and develop the role of spiritual awareness in their work. It is an essential resource for all those training or practising in social work, mental health, pastoral care and counselling.