Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: As a nurse, when I purchased this book, I thought I would find some beautiful poetry about the profession of nursing and the art of caring. Instead, I found what I think may be the problem with nurses. As I read this book, I am struck with what appears to be repressed hostility and depression by these writers. Some of the poetry is morbid. And we wonder why there are nursing shortages?

Rating:
Summary: Superb text for teaching creative approaches to caregiving.
Review: Superb text for teaching creative approaches to caregiving through literature to nurses and other caregivers. I had the honor of using the book as a text book this past semester at Penn State University, Harrisburg, PA. The course explored the literature of nurses as well as traditional literature. The goal of this exploration was to redefine caring, to create new ways to teach preventive health care and nurturance, and to sensitively encourage caregivers to own their responsibility to intellectualize and write from their unique vantage point as observers of pain. Numerous and various clinical scenarios were available through the creative writing in BETWEEN THE HEARTBEATS and provided an opportunity to look at clinical situations with a refreshing perspective. My co-editor, Cortney Davis, and I have conducted many workshops but this was my first opportunity to use the book as a text for a three credit course. As might be guessed, I was personnally pleased that the book served so well as a text. Best wishes to any of you who may want to try it in your classroom.

Judy Schaefer, RNC, MA

Rating:
Summary: Heartbeats Goes International
Review: This collection of poetry, essays, and short stories by registered nurses has moved, inspired, and encouraged nurses here in the US and Canada and overseas. Many nurses, after reading this collection, have contacted me to say how these poems and stories reflect what they think and feel as they themselves are working with patients: the joys and moments of transcendance as well as the fears and frustrations. Nurses from all walks of healhcare--among them ICU nurses, homecare nurses, Hospice Nurses, OB/GYN nurses, Nursing Home nurses, office nurses--find words here that mirror what they feel during those amazing moments, the ones between the heartbeats, when they are standing by a patient's side. Death and dying are part of a nurse's day, just as surely as birth, healing, and grace are. These works speak of all aspects of caregiving, from the nurse's unique vantage point. Now in it's fourth printing, Between the Heartbeats is being translated into Japanese and a second, all-new volume is currently being assembled, a companion piece to the original volume offered here. As Frances Biley said in her review of Heartbeats in Nursing Times (3/20/96) "This book is essential. I dare you to read 'NICU' by Dana Schuster and not be moved. Beg, steal or borrow this book; if that fails, buy it."