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How to Treat People

How to Treat People

A Nurse at Work

Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of How to Treat People by Molly Case.

As a teenager Molly case is admitted to hospital for an operation that will save her life. Nearly a decade later, she finds herself in the operating theatre again, this time as a trainee nurse. In How To Treat People, Molly brings together these extraordinary moments, when the professional and the personal become inseparable. She introduces us to patients with whom we share the pain, fear but also the life-affirming moments of illness. And when her father arrives on the high dependency unit of the hospital where Molly works we realise, most profoundly, that she is no longer there just to alleviate the patient's suffering but to be a part of it.

In the healing of a leg wound, in newly-sewn heart valves, and in the last breaths of a person, Molly Case illustrates the intricacies of the human condition and what really matters to us when we are at our most vulnerable. Weaving together medical history, art, memoir and science, How to Treat People explores the oscillating rhythms of life and death, the importance of what we impart and the legacies we leave behind.

Reviews

  • Case's empathy and compassion are everywhere evident in this beautifully written narrative
    Sunday Times

About the author

Molly Case

Molly Case is a spoken word artist, writer and nurse born and brought up in south London. She currently works at St George's Hospital, London as a cardiac nurse specialist. In April 2013 she achieved national recognition after performing her poem 'Nursing the Nation' at the Royal College of Nursing. Molly has appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, the Times, Elle magazine and Huffington Post, and was named in the Health Service Journal's Inspirational Women list and the BBC's 100 Women list.
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