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If It Weren't for the Nurses, We'd All Be Riding Hearses
A collection of stories and essays celebrating the unselfish dedication of nurses — medicine's first responders and its unsung backbone. Drawing on decades at the bedside, Kroneman turns his eye to the people who do the hardest, least-credited work in the hospital, and who, again and again, are the difference between life and death.
By turns funny, unsparing, and moving, these stories honor the skill, grit, and compassion of the nursing profession while shining a light on the pressures that a computer- and bureaucrat-driven healthcare system places on the people at the front line of care.
Author’s Note
This title came to me during the Covid-19 pandemic. The nurses did most of the heavy lifting, spending hours at the patient's bedside. Nurses are in a unique position to halt the erosion of trust in medicine — they rank as the most trusted professionals, eclipsing physicians. Seventy-six percent of Americans rank nurses high in integrity and ethical standards, against fifty-four percent for doctors. We have a lot to learn from nurses. I looked at them as heroes during Covid, and that prompted the title of this collection.
— Olaf Kroneman