Vintage The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story

Great book! Took a while to be delivered although this could be due to Covid-19.

I disliked this book intensely- I cannot believe it was written by a nurse. Not a nurse in the true caring and nurturing sense of the word. The author seemed to be impressed by her management of words and knowledge of philosophy rather than giving an account of her patient care. Many of the old school nurses will be unimpressed by this list of how clever and caring the author was.

After reading this book I first wanted to hug my children, then my parents, then a nurse. Christie Watson’s story of her 20+ years working as a nurse within the NHS is beautifully, almost poetically written, yet is easily accessible & engaging. Through stories of individual patients, and looking back on the history of nursing Christie encourages us to look more closely at a profession we will all encounter in our lives, either as a patient ourselves, or visiting a loved one in hospital. Nursing is undoubtably an incredible profession to work in, but we must also understand that at times it is a very difficult job, both physically and emotionally. This is an incredible book that everyone should read. Thank goodness for our NHS and thank goodness for nurses.

I enjoyed the passion, the stories, the commitment to patients. I came away more than ever impressed by the nurses in the NHS.But, this book should have been edited much more rigourously. Despite the subject matter, I actually got bored in places. The philosophising and history don't really work well and the book doesn't hang together properly.Still worth reading. But don't have too high expectations. The hype actually spoils the experience.

I bought this copy for my mother after devouring the first copy I bought on holiday and then giving that to a friend. Christie Watson is most certainly spreading the language of kindness and I am hoping to too through distributing this book to those around me! Highly recommend as a read if you're keen to hear more about our NHS and the challenges faced by those responsible for caring for us - physically, emotionally and mentally, although rarely paid for all three.

I'm the parent of a child with complex medical needs. She is severely disabled. Non verbal, non mobile, 100% tube fed and has epilepsy. Until 5 years ago I had very minimal experience of hospitals and nurses whereas now I can read medical notes and understand almost all of what is being discussed. It was great reading a book where I could see things from the other side of the hospital bed. We have become close over the years with some amazing nurses. Ones who will stay up late and chat with me in our cubicle. Ones who have taught me how to repass an NG tube, then a Gtube, then to being amazing at seeing a GJ button for the first time. I used to be so squeamish but now I think I would have been a great nurse. Nurses are amazing. They work tirelessly and this book shows not only how strained our nhs resources are, but how in spite of this the nurses persevere. It shows also the emotional side to it and the personal journey each nurse must go through. I was amused to learn about the author knowing which area a nurse worked in without knowing. I am familiar with this having encountered A&E nurses and all kinds. Thank you for writing this book. I suspect people who have not been exposed to the world of hospitals may be in for a bit of a shock and it would be great if more people could read it.