What is it like to be a student nurse washing the feet of a dying patient? To be a newly graduated nurse, in charge of the Intensive Care Unit for the first time, who wonders if her mistake might have cost a life? Or to be an experienced nurse who, by her presence and care, holds a patient to this world? The author, a poet and nurse practitioner answers these questions by examining her own experiences and through them reveals a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who care for us when we are at our most vulnerable. This work offers the joys, frustrations, fears, and miraculous moments that nurses, new and experienced, face every day. In these essays, she traces her twin paths, nursing and writing, inviting readers to share what she discovers along the way, lessons not only about the human body but also about the human soul. Rich, intimate, and never shrinking from the realities of illness, the grace of healing, or the wonder of words, it will inspire student caregivers, intrigue readers, and affirm those who have long worked in nursing, a profession that the author calls "odd, mysterious, humbling, addicting, and often transcendent."

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