"Early opens like a medical thriller . the heart of DiGregorio's illuminating book isn't just about her family's journey; it's an expansive examination of the history and ethics of neonatology . DiGregorio, a food editor and writer, is such a beautiful storyteller, I found myself underlining passages, turning corners of pages and keeping track of the page numbers at the back of the book until I had a hodgepodge of numbers scribbled on top of each other." -- New York Times Book Review on EARLY "DiGregorio's storytelling is pitch-perfect; narrative and nursing, she understands, come from the same place and both are concerned with a deep understanding of character and plot.This is a brilliant book, and DiGregorio is a beautiful writer. Taking Care deserves to be on the reading list for nursing and medical schools, and on the bedside table of all politicians. It is near impossible to articulate nursing in its vastness, yet Sarah DiGregorio has condensed its profound meaning into a call to arms." -- New York Times Book Review "This probing history of nurses situates the profession as radical, necessary health care--but plagued, too, by structural inequities from sexism to racism.
" -- Vanity Fair "A capacious look at nurses throughout history, from prehistoric times to the present. DiGregorio's abundant evidence of the crucial and transformative practice of nursing comes through her profiles of community health nurses, first responders, reproductive health providers, nurses turned politicians, and hospice nurses. A well-informed consideration of the intimacy of care." -- Kirkus Reviews "Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate portraits of individual caregivers, this is an enlightening study of a crucial yet often overlooked profession." -- Publishers Weekly "DiGregorio succeeds in offering a new, eye-opening perspective on the significance of nursing and nurses' power to better lives." -- Booklist "In precise and approachable prose, Sarah DiGregorio uses a journalist's tools to investigate the most ethical of professions: nursing. Each chapter of Taking Care shows us that ethic up close. But health care isn't perfect; nursing included.
Taking Care explores how - if untethered from the profit motive of the medical industrial complex and the classism, sexism, and racism within and foisted upon the profession - nursing has the power to make the world a better place." -- Mark Lazenby, Dean and Professor, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, University of California, Irvine "Taking Care is a revelation. DiGregorio tracks the necessity of caretaking from Neolithic times to our present moment of political struggle and climate change. Through informed hands-on care, patient advocacy, and an ongoing quest for justice, Taking Care shows that nurses make the world a better place." -- Theresa Brown, RN, and New York Times bestselling author of Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient and The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives. "In Taking Care, Sarah DiGregorio does the nearly impossible; seamlessly weaving together personal narratives and experiences while crafting a well-documented and researched book on the profession of nursing. DiGregorio doesn't stop with history but includes contemporary exemplars to contextualize the complexities of racism, patriarchy, and gender oppression that shaped and continue to influence the discipline. Drawing from sources across the education, clinical practice, policy, and research spectra, DiGregorio includes quotes from individuals who are nurses, work with nurses, study nurses or nursing to create a complicated and nuanced story of the "most trusted of the health professions.
" -- Monica R. McLemore RN, MPH, PhD, University of Washington, School of Nursing.