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The Courage to Care

The Courage to Care

Nurses, Families and Hope

Summary

'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

Reviews

  • The handbook for compassion... a must-read book
    Chris Evans

About the author

Christie Watson

Christie Watson is Professor of Medical Humanities at UEA and worked as an NHS nurse for over twenty years. She has written seven books, including her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, which won the Costa First Novel Award, and memoir, The Language of Kindness which was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. Christie is a contributor to The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and TEDx, and her work has been translated into 23 languages and adapted for theatre.
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