Nurses are on the front-lines, the ones with us the most during our stay... they deserve all the respect we can give them. . I had no idea some of this happened in the hospitals, all that the nurses put up with.. I have even more respect for them now.

This was an interesting book from the perspective of nurses. As the daughter of a nurse, and now a resident physician myself, I found myself relating to a lot of the anecdotes in the book, though some of it seemed more made-for-TV drama than real life. There's a lot to talk about here, so I'll write in bullet points. Today's nurses wear scrubs that might be stained with blood, urine, or various other un-arousing substances. A male nurse in Virginia said, "We're sweaty and smelly and covered in germs" Sounds sexy doesn't it? It takes amazing skill to turn such an agonising subject matter into an unputdownable plot, the way Claire Allan has done with 'The Nurse.' Her story-telling technique is unfaltering, be it in the tangible portrayal of Nell's sheer terror, Stephen's helplessness, Marian's alternating feelings of grief, dread and numbness, or in the characterization of the antagonist whose twisted POV invokes revulsion and outrage in the reader. Robbins' books have been a New York Times Editors' Choice, People Magazine's Critic's Choice, a Books for a Better Life Award winner, and a Goodreads Best Nonfiction Book of the Year. She writes for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Forbes. She has appeared on a wide variety of national television shows such as "60 Minutes," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Today Show," "The View," "The Colbert Report" and "Anderson Cooper 360."

The four ER nurses Robbins follows are the bones of the book, as you might expect; the reader is meant to get invested in them and their stories. Sometimes that is at the expense of other characters in the book. Charlene, a nursing supervisor, is introduced to the reader as 'insufferable' (27) and 'Scatterbrained and prone to favoritism' (30). If she has depth, it doesn't show. If this book were your introduction to nursing and doctor/patient relations, you might come away with the impression that doctors are all egotistical bullies (except for the very few who are reasonable human beings) and nurses are all belaboured, hard-working, intelligent saints who don't receive their due (except for the very few who are lazy bullies). I'm about half-way through. I don't know what to make of the book. The writing is sometimes fairly dense research and sometimes anecdotal. The anecdotal the stories of the four nurses is the most interesting but is a problem to me because although the four nurses are so very different, if their names weren't continually in front of me I wouldn't know which is which. Or perhaps I don't care enough? Pg. 137 “Nurse bulling is a significant problem in many corners of the world, etc. Worldwide, experts have estimated that one in three nurse quits her job because of it, and that bullying—not wages—is the major cause of a global critical nursing shortage.”

Another book that would normally be 'out of my book zone' but came across it by chance and thought I would give it a try. Very glad I did:) You have access to thousands of journals in nursing and midwifery. It’s easy to access articles through the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub and databases for advanced searching. You can also install LibKey Nomad on your device for easy access to journal literature when you search the web and platforms like Google Scholar.I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Shout out to Avon Books UK and Claire Allan. It was confusing at first keeping the different nurses straight and where they worked haha, but that didn't last very long. I liked this book, but didn’t love it. While the story centers around the disappearance of 22-year-old nurse Nell, it’s primarily told from the POV of Nell’s mom, Marian, and an unidentified villain who may or may not be the kidnapper. Molly, a nurse that quits her hospital because she is frustrated with all the new regulations being put on nurses and becomes an agency nurse. Meaning she floats around to different hospitals hoping to find one that is a fit for her.

Certain plot points related to some secondary characters are left dangling. While these may not have had a direct impact on the main storyline, it would have been helpful to know more about how it happened rather than only knowing that it happened. Meanwhile, our anonymous creep, AKA 'Him' has been watching Nell for weeks. A heavy participant of incel forums, Him feels that by stalking women just proves his dominance over women. Nell just simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And time is running out for Nell to be rescued... I've been reading books about all kinds of different heroes recently. This book is no exception. Written by journalist Alexandra Robbins "THE NURSES: A year of secrets, drama, and miracles with the heroes of the hospital" shows how we should be much more respectful to and thankful for these unsung heroes. They are on the front line. This book is able to take a matter like Chads and Staceys and keep the suspense and not make it some comedic cringe festival. I was at the edge of my seat. Especially about halfway through when we start to find out a lot more of what’s going on. I would recommend this for the suspense and also just as a warning to what kind of weirdos are out there. Stay safe, ladies!Progressively as you read this book, you’ll get to see the emotions and journey each main character goes through. Halfway through it does drag on, with the filler scenes that seems rather unnecessary and doesn’t really add to the plot. The reveal of the character ‘him’ is slowly revealed which in my opinion was obvious and clear, where subtle breadcrumbs are dropped.

The policies that don't protect nurses but do physicians... oy vey. All these policies are friggin complicated and in some cases mind boggling. You depend so much on nurses, why not protect them and treat them right? The author of five New York Times bestselling books and a Goodreads Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, Alexandra Robbins is an award-winning journalist and speaker who writes nonfiction books in the style of fast-paced beach reads. Reviewers have called her smart, entertaining prose "poolside nonfiction." I’m not sure why the book is titled The Nurse. It has nothing vital to do with the plot. Nell is a nurse, but I don’t think the story would change if she was in any other profession. I'm not saying that all medical assistants are the bomb-diggity, but this just seemed snooty to the ones that are not. And Juliette, an overweight and very hardworking nurse who gets excluded from the mean girl clique at the hospital. Yes, nurses do form highschoolish cliques-even though we are supposed to be in a helping field it still happens.

While THE NURSES may be non-fiction, it reads like a novel. That's a compliment to the author who has a way of turning day-to-day life into a story. You'll connect with these women, who are real-life women working in an unnamed US city at psuedonymn hospitals.