★★★★★
I was part of the Instagram Readalong of The Courage To Care: A Call For Compassion by Christie Watson, thanks to the TandemCollectiveUK team. They sent me the book, together with the discussion prompts, and me and an amazing group of bookstagrammers have been reading it and discussing it for the duration of five days. The Courage To Care is published by Vintage Books.
I chose to read The Courage to Care because both my auntie and mum are nurses. I also used to be a carer in a Care Home for people suffering from Dementia. The work nurses do, the hours they put into saving lives and the compassion and courage they have is incredible. I felt an obligation to read this book, and use my platform to emphasise how important nurses are.
In The Courage to Care, Christie Watson writes about the importance of nurses, not only in the hospitals, but just everywhere. The schools, on the streets, hospices, care homes, in prisons. And in Covid-19 times, when people need them the most, nurses are there, sacrificing their own health and families in order to help others. Their courage and bravery is something I have always admired, but especially in these hard times, it is something we shouldn’t forget.
This book is filled with different stories, showing nurses in different environments.
It is also filled with Christie’s personal stories and struggles, managing her nursing career, whilst also ongoing an adoption process and being a single parent.
It is very hard for me to write a detailed review of this book, without spoiling the stories for you, and I will do my best, because these stories are something that you should experience first-hand, for yourself.
With every story, we get close not just with the nurses, but with the patients and their families as well. We get to feel how they feel. And sometimes nurses are able to help them and bring happiness and hope to their lives. Other times, there is nothing else a nurse can do to help, except to just show compassion and make the patient feel comfortable. And during Covid-19 times, the nurses share the last moments with the people that couldn’t be with their loved ones.
This book made me cry more times than I could count, but it also made me giggle at times too.
Among all the sadness that comes with illnesses and hospitals, nurses are also there to make lives better for people. Give them hope. And for a moment, help patients forget that they are ill, even just for a moment.
I am so grateful to be able to read the Courage To Care.
And I am so grateful to be healthy at this very moment. This book made me appreciate the present. It reminded me to be kind and to show courage where needed, and help others who might need help. I cannot recommend this book enough!
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