Book Review: I Wasn't Strong When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming A Nurse

In August (yes, this is a very late book review), I read I Wasn't Strong When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming A Nurse. This book is a collection of stories written by nurses and edited by Lee Gutkind.

While I was taking Principles of Biology at Montgomery College, many of my classmates wanted to become nurses. I have two sisters at the University of Georgia right now who are thinking about becoming nurses (there's always that possibility of doing something else). All this nurse talk intrigued me, so I bought this book during a study break at Barnes & Nobel.

I think for some of the stories, people should read them with an open mind. These aren't just any nurses! Some of these nurses are also artists, creative writers, and some have left the profession. Nurses are real people, not just robots dressed nicely to follow set procedures to take care of you when you need help. I liked how many of the stories humanized nurses for me. I would think, "Ah! So they do think that!" or "I never realized how that might affect them."

One of my favorite stories tells about a nurse who goes overseas to help people without the resources she is accustomed to having. One lady in particular she helps is a woman who is bedridden and has a terrible bedsore. This nurse shows the patient's daughter how to care for her mother, has the son cook food, and has help from the locals to make a wheelchair. The nurse even uses house remedies (making a paste that includes honey to put on the bedsore) to help her ill patients get better.

Another stories I recall is a nurse who helped AIDS patients, and this was back when AIDS was still fairly new/unfamiliar and there were a lot of misconceptions flying around about AIDS. This nurse had such compassion for people, such an open mind and loving heart, that it softened my own heart a little. He was the first to walk into a room (without the prescribed protective equipment, which he realizes was really unnecessary because AIDS is not airborne) to feed a starving AIDS patient who was too weak to lift their own spoon. He later worked in a home that housed AIDS patients. Once, when one patient died, his body was brought out by people dressed in protective equipment, and another patient sees this and begs to not be brought out of there like that. The nurse ensures the AIDS patients have a respectful life after death, and he assists them on their "journey" to pass away.

I recommend the book if you like reading books of short stories or accounts and are interested in nurses (as humans) and the variety of jobs they have (from taking care of babies to old people, from working in hospitals to ships to overseas, from new nurses to experienced nurses).