The Shift Registered Nurse Sparknotes

One Nurse, One Shift Shifting Perspectives

In the nonfiction book The Shift registered nurse, Theresa Brown starts her story with “I'm hiding under the covers: Im afraid. Afraid of that moment when the rock slips and all hell breaks loose. For me, it was the patient who started coughing up blood and within five minutes was dead, just like that.” This is Brown describing some of the struggles she encounters on a typical shift as a nurse. This is why she chose to write about her shift with 4 patients and what she went through with each of them. The central idea of this book is, Nursing is difficult and nurses are only humans that have personal struggles Brown's sharing every detail of her shift helps effectively make readers better understand

An example of this is, “Ray is young: twenty-five when he developed leukemia. He’d noticed himself growing daily more and more tired, and then he had a bruise that blossomed into a deep purple bulge under the skin of his lower abdomen… “The tiredness was what sent him to the doctor. Firefighters cant be chronically exhausted and Ray played hard too: kids, the band, parties. The fatigue was making his job hard and cramping his style.” This tells the audience a little about Ray and how he came to find out he had cancer. This makes the readers continue to have sympathy towards her because she is watching someone she cares for suffer time and time again. She uses logos when she charts, “Do the lungs sound clear? That’s normal- chart it. Is the patient urinating? Normal- chart it. Having bowel movements? Chart that, but also specify the consistency, color, and frequency.” This shows she’s reliable even if it’s time-consuming. Meaning she does what is asked of

In the text it says, “The time I spent with Sheila, her sister, and brother-in-law feels like one of the most important things I will do today, but it doesn’t show up on any electronic to-do list.” This shows that spending time with patients and family is important during hard times. She spent time even if she didn't have the time meaning she cared for her patient. Another example of this is, “I spend a lot of the middle part of that day in Joe’s room. I didn’t do much, and then again I did all I could: I listened. Sometimes people just need to talk to say things over and over and over. I listened while Joe did that…” “Id spent a lot of time in Joes room listening. I felt as if id had it too easy, but at the same time I was exhausted. There’s nothing east about helping someone start the journey from life to death.” This shows that it's hard to be a nurse and some people just need someone to listen to them. This makes people acknowledge that nursing can take a toll on you. The readers feel like they understand more about the struggles and the rewards that nurses