A Comment:
"Hi Adrienne,
I have finished reading your book and, as usual, I am thoroughly impressed. Your honesty is unbelievable. Your writings have caused me to view my life, my career an my person in a whole new way. As you know, I have always seen you as one of the most couragious people I know. Writing Notes... took more courage than I have seen in a long, long while. Keep your head up and keep believing. Success has caught up to you and now there is no turning back. Don't forget the little people. LOL (CCF/RN)
And the REVIEW!
The Review is written by the author of http://emergiblog.com, which is noted as One of the
BEST HEALTH BLOGS by FOXNEWS.COM!
Also, emergiblog.com was a 2006 Nominee for
BEST MEDICAL WEBLOG and BEST LITERARY MEDICAL WEBLOG!
Adrienne Zurub spent 26 years of her life as a member of the Cleveland Clinic open heart/heart transplant surgery team.
A couple of weeks ago, after almost three decades of professional nursing in the premier heart surgery center, she was fired.
Why?
She wrote a book.
This book.
It's a book about, well, Adrienne Zurub! A half-century grrl, registered nurse, wife, spoken-word poet, mother, stand-up comic, daughter and writer.
Through stories and vignettes, she describes people, places and events that shaped her growth in all these areas.
It's natural that some of these vignettes would be be about her time on the prestigious heart surgery service.
And the characters that populate the cardiac surgery suites. Doctors, patients and nurses.
*****
I had to know what ticked off Cleveland Clinic so badly that they felt they had to terminate Adrienne's employment.
After all, this book isn't about Cleveland Clinic, it's about Adrienne.
Does Cleveland Clinic have a institutional ego problem or was Adrienne off-the-wall?
I decided to buy the book and judge for myself.
I'm glad I got it when I did - amazon.com sold out of it right after I ordered it!
I read it in one sitting.
*****
Was it because she was brutally honest about the environment she worked in, the team she worked with?
The brilliant and the arrogant? The skilled and the misogynistic? The exhausted and the doormats?
Surgeons yelling at nurses? Surgeons yelling at patients? Patients yelling at surgeons?
What did Cleveland Clinic find objectionable about the fact that the heart team is comprised of unbelievably talented, dedicated doctors and nurses who are inherently human and, rarely, all too fallible?
*****
Maybe it was the patient stories.
Surely these are composites. Twenty-six years of surgery experience would tend to provide a lot of samples.
Was it the patient who tried to conduct the OR? The one who told a surgeon to go-to-hell by a rather extraordinary feat?
Or the ones that made my throat and eyes burn as I tried not to cry so I could finish the story?
Which ones did Cleveland Clinic disapprove of?
*****
Then again, maybe it's the fact that despite magnet status, Cleveland Clinic does not treat their nurses with the same respect and deference they show to the doctors.
A keychain here, a water bottle there, an occasional T-shirt instead of decent pay and benefits.
Or the fact that a fancy chicken dinner and a watch is considered a big treat after twenty-five years and Adrienne wasn't buying into it.
Cleveland Clinic could'nt possibly have been upset with that. They certainly don't have the copyright on paying lip service to how much they value their nurses and then treating them like so much chattel.
*****
Adrienne herself describes the book as provocative and it is!
And yet, it is not an in-your-face diatribe, it is more like a face-to-face look at an intelligent, funny fifty-something nurse with opinions on pretty much everything, including her time as an RN at the Cleveland Clinic.
They say nursing has no voice. Well, Adrienne has one. And she is paying the price for it.
I hope she laughs all the way to the bank with her writing and her stand-up comedy.
She deserves success.
Buy the book.
And if you are put off by honest, humorous, poignant, earthy, provocative literature with an adult word here and there ¦..
Buy it anyway!
COMMENTS:
Marijke
February 5, 2008 at 8:07 am
I absolutely will buy the book now. If for no reason other than to support a fellow nurse.
Thank you for writing about it and - well, I won't say what I think of the institution that fired her.
NPs Save Lives
February 5, 2008 at 9:41 am
This is such a crock! God forbid a doctor write a book. It would probably be put in a bookcase front and center for all to see. I hope she laughs all the way to the bank. Screw them! I just wish I had the talent to do the same. Alas! My career has'nt been very interesting as of yet. I'm working on it! I will definitely buy her book! We all need to support each other.
Beth
February 5, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Great review - I can't wait to read this book (a) because it sounds so interesting and (b) because I would like to support Ms. Zurub's right to tell her side of the story.
Mother Jones RN
February 5, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Kim, so you were the one who got the last copy of Adrienne's book. I tried buying it on Amazon, but I couldnt get it because they were sold out. Oh yeah, I love how you're signing your name these day. Cute!
ditzydoctor
February 6, 2008 at 12:26 am
dearest k. RN!
you never fail to brighten my day
and i hope the book goes for a 2nd print run so i can buy it!
Tom
February 6, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I look forwared to reading the book If I can find it! Hmmm¦. if you could prove that you were terminated for what appears to be exercising you right of free speech, you could be the proud owner of a hospital!
Lyn
February 6, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Adrienne is a sharp woman who has the world by the balls. She might be feeling remorse from her termination, but, God moves us where He wants us to be. It is wonderful that she aroused that much attention that they felt fear and other for her great skill at relaying that which she endured, suffered, felt, lived, survived, and loved. It is a great honor to arouse that kind of reaction, especially with your first book¦ She is on her way, and, being freed from their services will only light the way to the comfort of the Oprah show¦ Excellent review of a fine and worthy woman¦
Manchild
February 7, 2008 at 1:57 am
Hello Kim,
I applaud and celebrate Adrienne for writing a book that should not have cost her a job that she held for over 25 years. Go figure.
Nevertheless, the wise have always told me that whenever mortal hands close a door, God always opens another one that no man, nor doctor, can shut. I hope and pray that her book sales soar beyond her wildest expectations
Thank you for sharing Adrienne's inspiring story. May her courageous act of faith encourage other nurses who are living in fear of losing their jobs to find their voices and raise them.
Manchild
Lin
February 7, 2008 at 3:10 am
What a great review. Makes me want to run out and buy this book right now.
JEMi
February 7, 2008 at 7:21 am
What an incredible review!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and it was an effective prompt for me to go and buy that book