I read an article recently about nurses leaving the workforce in record numbers due to burnout and stress. The pandemic has been hard on everyone, but I can’t imagine what nurses, doctors and other health workers have had to deal with in recent times. When I think of heroes, medical professionals are at the top of my list. My aunt was a nurse, so I have a very personal connection to this noble profession.
Did you know that May celebrates Nurses Week? It starts on May 6 and ends on May 12 which is Florence Nightingale’s birthday (May 12, 1820). My recommended reads this week are all nurse-related, and one of my favorite titles is Mary J. MacLeod’s “Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle.” In a previous “Check It Out” column I wrote about her book with great enthusiasm.
The library also has her second book “Nurse, Come You Here!” which continues her stories about the challenges of nursing in the wild remoteness of the Hebrides. Really fun books to read.
If you have an interest in local history, consider reading “Providence White Caps: The Diary of Bernice Lorang, RN” by Judith Jacobs Litchfield. Bernice Lorang, a nurse and longtime resident of Ridgefield, kept a diary about her days as a nursing student at St. Joseph Hospital in Vancouver. Her niece, Judith Jacobs Litchfield, decided to write a book about her aunt’s life, and it is available at the library.
