Publisher's Synopsis
Nurse protests are occurring all over the United States. Anyone who has ever been a health worker or a patient knows that a doctor admits you to the hospital, but it's the nurses that make sure you get to go home. Now more than ever, the world needs a story that pushes to keep the care in healthcare. Labor Pains, the story of an RN on the hero's journey, is a life-changing read that is long overdue. Nurses work hard to protect their patients; yet most nurses have no idea that the same protections apply to their own practice and well-being. Labor Pains offers an inside peek into the political issues nurses must face to provide patient safety that also protects the nurses themselves from burnout and bodily harm. This unique view into the battle between the essential workers of healthcare and the pencil pushers of corporate greed will resonate with nurses and patients alike.At Mercy General trouble is brewing. Outside nurses protest for patient safety and worker protections. Inside nurses work hard to care for the sick while most of their patients don't realize that illness may be the least of their worries. A huge corporation threatens to turn their community hospital into a big box medical center. In the middle of the fray, Paige O'Neill, a labor and delivery nurse brings babies into the world but can't seem to have another of her own. Paige knows how to relieve the pain of her patients; but when it comes to her own suffering she relies more and more on alcohol. From the tender moments in the delivery room to the secrets shared in boardrooms, this timely tale of essential workers and pencil pushers awakens the spirit to the heroic powers of the nursing profession: courage, caring and hope. Amid birth and death, joy and betrayal, greed and caregiver burnout, Paige O'Neill endeavors to triumph over the most terrifying of forces: Labor Pains.
