The Language of Kindness

A Nurse's Story

By: Christie Watson

Narrated by: Christie Watson

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A moving, lyrical, beautifully-written portrait of a nurse and the lives she has touched

Christie Watson spent twenty years as a nurse, and in this intimate, poignant, and remarkably powerful book, she opens the doors of the hospital and shares its secrets. She takes us by her side down hospital corridors to visit the wards and meet her unforgettable patients.

In the neonatal unit, premature babies fight for their lives, hovering at the very edge of survival, like tiny Emmanuel, wrapped up in a sandwich bag. On the cancer wards, the nurses administer chemotherapy and, long after the medicine stops working, something more important--which Watson learns to recognize when her own father is dying of cancer. In the pediatric intensive care unit, the nurses wash the hair of a little girl to remove the smell of smoke from the house fire. The emergency room is overcrowded as ever, with waves of alcohol and drug addicted patients as well as patients like Betty, a widow suffering chest pain, frail and alone. And the stories of the geriatric ward--Gladys and older patients like her--show the plight of the most vulnerable members of our society.

Through the smallest of actions, nurses provide vital care and kindness. All of us will experience illness in our lifetime, and we will all depend on the support and dignity that nurses offer us; yet the women and men who form the vanguard of our health care remain unsung. In this age of fear, hate, and division, Christie Watson has written a book that reminds us of all that we share, and of the urgency of compassion.

An essential read for anyone who knows even one person

This is a potentially life changing book. We follow the author through her career choices as she settles on nursing. Her words have the depth and weight of the most important sermon. Truly a force of thought.

Loved

As an ER I love hearing stories of other nurses, what they feel and go through makes everything more comforting. This book was beyond amazing and loved every minute of it.

Who is in Pediatric Intensive Care?

Christie Watson in her "The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story," documents a vapid-less nursing career spanning over twenty years. In brief it explains the facets of life when one has chosen nursing as a profession (on a quotidian basis). Watson is an award winning writer---Costa first novel award. She now has found another way to express her empathy by way of teaching a disparate genre from which she was trained. Through her tales, we become fully submerged in care.

Well written

I am a nurse and liked the comprehensive look at what we do. Many of the stories are hard to listen to for parents or grandparents, but I do recommend this book.

Wow

Beautiful story, nursing is not an easy job it has ups and downs and the authors shows the struggles and rewards amazingly.