Our nurses are one of our best resources – who doesn’t want to be looked after when they are ill and at their worst? Although nurses do so much more than just look after the ill. How many of you wanted to be a nurse when asked as a child what you wanted to be when you grew up? If you did, would you want to one in today’s world knowing what you know now about pay levels and the extremely hard work involved? For most nurses, I bet that would still be a yes as it is a very caring and dedicated profession and for most definitely a calling.
WIGU Publishing have a series of books exploring the topic of When I Grow Up I Want To Be… They are a series of children’s books taking a look at different professions and life lessons, with the stories told through the eyes of the children featured in the stories. One of the titles in the series explores what it is like to be a nurse, which I have just finished reading.
Amber, a schoolgirl, has finally been persuaded to play football at school (or soccer as it is called in the book as it is written for the American market) and discovers that she really enjoys it and is actually quite good at it. She is delighted that she has taken it up. Tragedy strikes in her very first competitive game, she has an accident that results in her hurting her arm, ouch! This results in a visit to the school nurse who then sends her to the hospital as her arm is actually broken.
Amber fears going to the hospital – all those needles and all that blood! She quickly discovers that hospitals are nothing to be frightened of and that everybody who works there is kind, caring and very hard working. All her fears and misconceptions about hospitals and nursing are all put to rest, resulting in the realisation that they do a very good job, and as she likes helping other people, she would actually like to be a nurse when she grows up.
Overall, this is a very interesting and insightful into the nursing profession as well as a child’s fears about hospitals. Although this book was written for the American children’s market, it easily translates to the UK market as nursing is a universal occupation. Although some of the terms used within the book might be slightly different between the US and UK nursing professions, it doesn’t take anything away from the nursing system and dispels lots of myths, especially about nurses only being female. It also takes a look at the different types of nurses (depending on which hospital department they work in) and shows that hospitals are nothing to be afraid of.
Whilst this is a story of a young schoolgirl and her fear of the hospital, interspersed between the story are also information pages explaining the differences between various types of nurses, what functions nurses provide, what happens in an emergency room and explains things like what triage is, what vitals are, gives a brief and simple explanation of how x-rays work and a brief history of nursing with the world’s most infamous nurse, Florence Nightingale.
This is a very well written and constructed story, featuring some great colourful illustrations, that introduces children to the nursing profession and what it is like to be a nurse.
When I Grow Up I Want To Be… a Nurse! is an excellent tale about overcoming fears and misconceptions while introducing children to a rewarding career path about unselfishly caring for others.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £8.59 (paperback)
Available to buy from Amazon here.
