This is a book that is clearly riding the waves of the success of When Breath Becomes Air, but I think it's a worthy competitor. It's not often you get to hear from a nurse's perspective though, and this is definitely the book people need. It's heartbreaking, beautifully told, and provides a fascinating overview of nursing in the UK. However, at times I think it tries to be a bit too much like When Breaths Become Air by incorporating too much history, philosophy and science, and sometimes the narrative feels a bit all over the place. I much preferred the moments that were Christie's own experiences. If you're a fan of medical non-fiction, this is a must-read and is well worth your time.

My obsession with books of a medical bent continue and this one was really good. Thought provoking and honest both about shortcomings in the health service and the author herself. It moved me to tears more than once and definitely made me think more and certainly to appreciate our NHS

This is a memoir of a nurse working within the nhs in the UK. A fantastic look back on everything that shaped her nursing, and her understanding of nursing. It made me cry in parts. Also includes history and philosophy of nursing too.

I’m not certain why the cover design for Christie Watson’s memoir The Language of Kindness is so abstract; there is certainly nothing abstract or theoretical about the endlessly challenging work of nursing that she describes in this book. Falling into the profession as a seventeen-year-old, Watson bounces all over the place through the course of her career: from mental health wards to geriatric care homes, to working with learning-disabled adults, to oncology and paediatric intensive care. She writes with great tenderness and insight about the toll that the job takes on you; about nursing children who die, and what it is like to wash and prepare their bodies before their parents can come to see them; what it is like to go to their funerals. She writes about the stresses of having few resources and little sympathy, either from the government or from the general public. She writes about her own father’s death from cancer and the way in which his nurse, Cheryl, became more than a professional, something closer to family. Cheryl is there at her father’s funeral. Watson has actually written two novels, but the style of her memoir is stripped-back and matter-of-fact, which both suits the subject matter and emphasises the simple appallingness of human vulnerability, which it is the nurse’s job to dignify and comfort. This isn’t out until May, but I will be recommending it to absolutely everyone. As Watson says, we never know what will happen to us, to people we love; we never know when we might be the ones sitting in the waiting room or propped up in the hospital bed, in need of care and compassion and kindness.

This is a wonderful memoir. It is an honest account which takes the reader through the life of a teenage girl who doesn't know what she wants to do, who then becomes a student nurse and then gradually, over a period of twenty years, an expert nurse.

As a student, the author initially experiences mental health nursing, but she goes on to choose child nursing as her specialty. She recounts memories and experiences from different hospitals and different wards, right up to her last post on the resuscitation team. All of the stories are interesting. None are overloaded with medical language. All demonstrate a huge amount of humanity and in the later part of the book also demonstrate the balance between career and family life. This would be an ideal book for anyone considering a career in nursing.

I felt that the ending was a little bit abrupt. It was suddenly the author's last day as a nurse and I was left asking why she was leaving the profession and what she was going to do instead. Just a couple more pages here would have made this a five star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A really beautiful and honest account of a career in nursing. It is a very important read for anyone hoping to understand the goings on of our healthcare system, and the demands it places on it's staff.

Christie Watson was a nurse for 20 years, and this book is Christie's account of her nurse training and subsequent career, and all of the fascinating experiences she encountered, people she met, and the things that she felt. As a nurse myself, I found this a really fascinating read to begin with due to the content and some of the experiences that I could relate to. However, at around the halfway mark I lost interest as the writing style was quite dry, the stories long and convoluted, and it did not grip me as much as I had hoped it would. It's a shame because this had so much potential, but it just did not pack enough of a punch for me.

Brilliant! This book gave a fascinating insight into the role of a nurse in today's NHS. Christie Watson writes with tenderness, compassion and gentle humour and confirmed for me just how important nurses are in helping patients through their illness. I would love to read more and hope she writes another book.

Christie is a nurse, but it’s not as simple as that. She’s the one who holds your hand when you cry, helps you understand what the doctor has said, holds babies who are crying when their own mother can’t be there, she’s the one who comes racing through the corridors when you’re having a heart attack to help you.

Simply, she (and every other nurse) is the backbone of our NHS.

When Christie leaves school she begins working with people with disabilities, aiding them before beginning her training to be a nurse. To start with specialising in mental health but moving away into other sections. The book is moving and emotional, detailing harrowing cases of abuse and neglect that brings people to hospital as well as the cases which were unpredictable and being able to protect people is difficult.

In places the book is very personal, we go through the journey of Christie’s Dad passing away. The raw emotions and process that are unknown to some.

Now I really enjoy memoirs of all kinds, I’ve read a fair few medical memoirs but don’t have any medical knowledge beyond that. There are some bits in the book that left me slightly confused over terms, I think the book would suit someone who is in the profession or wants to go into it. There are a few instances within the book where Christie says she didn’t know what something was but then learnt it, however as I’m not in the medical profession I still don’t know what they are!  

Nurses are so important, they are undervalued in our NHS and perhaps all over the world.

There's been a few of these types of titles of late. Memoirs / stories from real people in real jobs, particularly in the public service sphere giving the public a real insight in what it means to be a nurse / a doctor / a lawyer / a policeman etc. This is one of the best in the class. It may not have the laugh out loud of Adam Kay, but it gives as great an insight into the real unsung heroes of the medical profession - the nurses.
Christie really gives us a personal insight - from her tricky teens where a life as a nurse felt like the least likely profession she'd follow! - through to her years as a student nurse, and through the various nursing specialities - mental health, pediatrics, surgery etc - giving us stories of patients along the way, interwoven with things that are going on in her own life - the breakdown of her relationship and the death of her father.

A beautifully well written insight, and I will undoubtedly view every member of the nursing profession with an even greater level of respect than I did before. A truly special profession.

An unusual and detailed story of the making of a nurse in the NHS. The author trained ina general hospital, and worked in various departments. She found mental health nursing very draining; enjoyed working in maternity wards, and looking after premature babies. She also found herself working in both adult and children's intensive care units.
She describes the emotions, and the necessary grit needed to last in an underfunded, and under pressure hospital, and some of the patients and other nurses she encounters.
I found this easy to read, although it does make you glad to be alive and well. I hope should I end up in a hospital, it is one with such a caring nurse as this working there.
Many thanks to the publisher, and Net Galley for the chance to read this book.

There are several books out there written as an insight to the life of a medical professional but this is the most serious and technical I’ve read. It really focuses on the difficult elements of nurses and doesn’t spare any of the gory details. The book is well written and gives excellent insight into the job and how much nurses actually do!

A story which proves how underrated nurses are. This account of nursing pulls at the heart strings and shows how much nurses do for their patients and their patients family. It is a memorable book worth reading.

A good read looking at the nursing profession from a different viewpoint

A real eye opener for anyone not involved in the Health industry. All the hard work and emotional roller coasters that go along with nursing are not always acknowledged, so this was an interesting read.

Having recently suffered a berevement, i wasnt sure if this book was right for me.
However, the kindness and devotion from Christie to her patients shines throughout the, yes, somewhat depressingly true stories of the NHS. The writing really flowed and i am now looking into reading her other works.
Thank you for this lovely book.

This book is amazing! Such great stories told with such compassion, really heartwrenching stuff a lot of the time but the humanity and compassion we are able to have for each other is really brought to life in this book. There are dark sides to it of course, she's a nurse looking after very ill babies - some of them have been abused and its sad but important reading I guess. I didn't really know what to expect from this book but safe to say it exceeded any, please read and I hope its as good for you as it was for me!

How can I describe this book? It is autobiographical. Christie takes from her fifteen year old typical teenage girl self through a few years of not having a clue what she wants to do, to be, to a sudden decision to become a nurse.
She takes us eloquently through spells on acute mental health wards, surgical rotations, adult medical, intensive care, paediatrics and more. It is not a list. Not 'I did this then I moved to that'.
Christie provides a non linear narrative that works perfectly. She shares every aspect of nursing; from beginning to end; the first birth she attends to the funeral of a child she nursed for months, always knowing he would die.
There are horrors of ECMO machines exploding painting an entire room - and staff - in the total volume of their patient's blood.
She describes regular 2 am buffets where staff caring for the very sickest of babies get ten minutes to eat and drink so they have the energy to work through a pressured shift with barely time for a pee break.
This is not a manual of nursing practices; nor is Christie painting herself and colleagues as angels. It is lovely. It is sad. It is happy. It is real.

A fantastically readable medical memoir which really gets to the heart of nursing. It really shows how underrated nurses are as they give everything to their jobs. Heartbreaking, uplifting and wonderful.

I have read quite a few healthcare-themed memoirs and found many of them moving but none so much as this, a nurses story which resonated deeply, partly because of my own background in mental health care but also because Watson is a wonderful writer.

The stories of the patients Watson cares for over the years are deeply affecting but what touches the reader the most is the nurse's own story; a story of compassion and caring, technical skills acquired over time and most of all, the tacit knowledge (call it instinct) which sets apart an expert nurse from her more junior colleagues. Watson sensitively weaves in various philosophies and models of nursing, never allowing them to overshadow the everyday nature of much of nursing; they assist the reader in understanding how philosophers can help the nurse to know themselves better, therefore helping their patients. What also stands out is Watson's advocacy for her colleagues and her refusal to allow us to overlook the living, breathing and feeling human inside a pair of scrubs who cries and rails against the unfairness and indignity of the failing human bodies they care for. Nursing is hard and it takes a toll. If you are a good nurse, you will suffer for it.

Nursing skills are about fundamentals, not basics and Watson emphasizes through her insistence that nursing is about kindness, care and compassion, all those things that cannot be easily taught in the classroom, although they should be a lynchpin of both practical and theoretical training. What stands out, especially in the earlier part of the book, is the absolute reality of the practice-theory gap, and how only hard time in practice can bridge it.