In the same style of recent nursing memoirs. A good look into a staple of the Nhs. Interesting and thought provoking.

I was really excited to read this book after reading the likes of This Is Going To Hurt but I was disappointed that rather than being confessions of a health visitor, it was simply a story about the author’s life.

When I reached roughly 75%, I was finally reading the book that I was looking for: an informative insight into how health visitors operate. I was also looking forward to reading anonymised stories of different encounters and experiences with clients but felt that the handful included were rushed and weren’t explored.

The title of the book and the synopsis led me to believe I was in for a humorous but informative read and I was left feeling very disappointed. The epilogue felt rushed but did have some pertinent points in the midst of the worldwide pandemic we find ourselves in.

I knew I would enjoy this book just from the title and front cover. I work in the NHS in Primary Care and have heard some great stories from various sectors over the years.

Rachael, this book is excellent, your book is incredibly well put together and the stories you have covered have touched me. I could sit and have several cups of tea and happily listen to you talk.

Excellent, and highly recommended

I really wanted to love this one, but I struggled with the writing, the way it was told and it just didn't hold my attention at all.

Sorry

Having previously worked for the NHS and spent time within the children and families sector I was keen to read this insight into a health visitors career. With over 30 years experience Rachael has seen the many sides to society.

Whilst I enjoyed reading about the cases she shares, I did struggle to gain an affection for Rachael. Not quite seeing her personality through the words and feeling uneasy about how she single handedly saved families. Although it is clear that she has gone above and beyond I don't feel it is right to claim this acclaim.

If you are hoping for a book like 'Call the Midwife', covering lots of interesting case studies, you are likely to be disappointed. This is much more of a memoir, with plenty of homilies about how the system has flaws and what could improve it.

It was an interesting read - written in a fairly colloquial style, with a variety of cases touched on briefly. The author is not shy about telling the reader how well she does her job, how she dips into her own pocket to help those in her care, and indeed how she and her family felt the despair of job loss and very low income. She doesn't really deal with many cases where she made a wrong choice or was afraid or worried about her charges. Usually she knew exactly what to do.

I was particularly interested to read what support 'universal' mothers should expect from health visitors after the birth of a child in the late 80s and 90s, which contrasts strongly with the experience I received!

Thank you to NetGalley and Mirror Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading Rachael Hearson's memoir. She joined the NHS as a student nurse so 40 years ago. She's worked for the nhs in many roles including a nurse, midwife, and health visitor.
I have recently read many memoirs by doctors, nurses, midwives etc; but this is the first by a health visitor.
It took a while to get into as the beginning detailed her life from upbringing in a Romany family through to her training, nursing, becoming a midwife and then a health visitor.
I can say I did enjoy reading most of the book but think if there was more about the people that she helped than about her personal upbringing then I would have enjoyed it that little bit more.

I love medical memoirs. I’ve read about doctors nurses paramedics so it was good to have an in sight into a profession that most people think health visitors sit and have coffee with. However it was interesting to have an insight into what a health visitor really does how the job has changed over the years because of circumstances and life. I would have liked to hear more about cases rather than her personal experiences but on the whole a good book.

As an NHS Health Visiter, Rachael Hearson finds herself in some interesting situations. Women from all lifestyles need help in navigating motherhood and she is there with them every step of the way.

I enjoy reading diary and confession type books as you get a real insight into the lives of people that you don’t necessarily interact with on a day to day basis. I loved Adam Kay’s ‘This is Going to Hurt’ or memoirs of prison doctors but I found this one a little lacklustre. I think part of this is that I find the stories of the patients and situations more interesting than the background of the person telling the story and Handle With Care is much more memoir of Racheal Hearson’s life. This may be due to the fact her job means she only pops into the lives of her patients for a short amount of time and often doesn’t know the outcome of her visits. I would say you get the background of her life and training for about 70% of the book and actual case studies for 30%. Although it’s an interesting and engaging read, it wasn’t really what I had expected and requested the book for! Perhaps if they had been more snippets of personal stories and better intertwined with the cases it would have made for a well-constructed read that fulfilled a lot of readers expectations.

There also feels like a lot of the ‘saviour’ complex in this book, with Rachael talking about how many times she single-handedly turned a person’s life around or gave her own money to patients frequently. Although this may be true, it didn’t really make it easy to empathise with her when you are just bashed around the head with how amazing at her job she was without any talk of mistakes or trepidation she had with decisions she was making.

When the actual cases were delved in though to they were very interesting and it was an insight into a part of the health profession that I have never needed to use so I did find it fascinating in that sense. I did also really enjoy the end chapter about the NHS and the Coronovirus, which especially as I was reading the ARC, is amazingly current. It’s a heart-warming addition about just how important and life-saving the NHS is and how lucky we are to have it which is so true.

Overall, I found Handle With Care a little disappointing – it’s too much about the personal life of an individual Health Visitor than proper insights and confessions of the job as a whole. Thank you to NetGalley & Mirror Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book quite informative and interesting. Never realised how much a health visitor would go through. I found some of the stories very funny and others heartbreaking.
Thank you to netgalley and the author and publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC for my honest opinion

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Mirror books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.
When I heard about this book, I was expecting something along the lines of This is going to hurt, The Prison Doctor Texas al, but this is slightly different. The focus of the book is on the author herself, her early days growing up and later, her personal history. While this is interesting, I was expecting the focus to be more on the families she visited rather than herself. I realise that patient confidentiality must be respected but other authors have managed to give longer, more detailed case histories without violating confidentiality. For me, the stories were a little rushed and not expanded upon.
However, it’s still an excellent read. It took me a little while to get into, but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is difficult to rate because this author has opened up about her own heartbreak and experiences she has been through for that I want to say that is extremely brave, and thank you for sharing. It means that woman aren't alone in their own situations and I think some things need to be talked about more.

Aside from this authors own experience, I was absorbed in the beginning. It was interesting to learn how her career aet of and the differences between nurse training when she begun and now.
As the book went on I found myself less engaged. I think I wanted more understanding of the health care, and as the title suggest "confessions". I don't feel there were any real confessions, but I do understand the author may not have been able to expand on more.

It was an interesting read, and it gave me an insight into the Health Care side of things which I didn't fully know before.

Handle with Care: True Confessions of an NHS Health Visitor, a frank, honest and brutal look at life as NHS Health visitor. It's a thought-provoking and extremely relevant read.

Thank you @netgalley and @mirror.books for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.
“Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
This book follows the life of a health visitor; Rachael and her family. It talks about her journey to become a health visitor and the obstacles placed before her. There were mentions of clients she helped throughout her career but for me I wish they were talked about a bit more, I felt they were ‘done and dusted’ too quickly in the book, and I thought those stories should have taken up the bulk of the book as opposed to her personal life. I loved the added part about the coronavirus at the end of the book and how the pandemic has effected her work and how amazing the NHS has been for the UK since it was founded. Overall though it was a wonderful book and it did give you a peek into the world of a health visitor and how amazing and wonderful they are.
“Kindness always wins in the end.”

Thanks to Net Galley & Mirror Books for this early release. I requested this book having recently read and loved Adam Kay’s ‘This is Going to Hurt’ and assumed from this book’s description that it would be similar in nature. I was wrong. It took me a long time to get through the first third of the book as I wasn’t expecting all the background to Rachael’s story from growing up to carrying out her training and moving around the country. It wasn’t until she moved from London to Dorset that I became properly invested in the story as I realised she had lived and worked where I grew up and still have connections with today. I flew through the rest of the book and enjoyed the stories of her day-to-day experiences of Health Visiting, although the stories of sending her kids to private school to avoid a local school she worked at one time did upset me as I’m sure this was referring to one of two schools I attended. I also enjoyed the very recent addition at the end of the book discussing the NHS and how her work had been effected by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

I was hoping for memoirs reflecting upon Rachael Hearson's experiences working in the NHS. Instead, a significant portion of the book discusses her upbringing and there is far too much emphasis on her personal life. Whilst this could be an interesting addition to the book, it could easily have been condensed. At times, it felt as if I was reading an autobiography that briefly discussed her work. Not what I expected.

The client stories - which should form the bulk of the book - are far too brief and disjointed. Understandably anonymity is essential, however there was very little information as to how decisions were made and what happened as a result which seems bizarre.

I also felt Hearson's tone was incredibly unprofessional and she seems very judgemental (one client being described as "bat-shit crazy"). She is frequently belittling of peoples circumstances and behaviour, yet repeatedly sings her own praises which I found irritating and left me struggling to finish the book.

Disappointing.

Thanks to Mirror Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love a medical, autobiographical non fiction read. So when I saw this one pop up, written by a Health Visitor I thought this looks right up my street.

The book was very interesting. I loved the highlights made with specific cases which really showed what the day to day life of a health visitor is like. Hearson's career has been varied with a number of roles being mentioned prior to being a Health Visitor. These also added a further rounded view of working within the NHS. Also in varying settings in society and around the country (such as city vs. country living).

With regards what I didn't enjoy so much was the heavy mention of politics. This is very much a personal opinion. I was looking for a purely medical case based book. But the authors perspective and views are highly politically weighted. And so, not so much for me here.

Highly recommend for those looking for a new type of medical autobiographically non fiction.

Brilliant book have read memoirs of Gps consultants and midwives so was lovely to read about a Health Visitor. Funny in parts sad in parts but overall lovely

A memoir written in a lovely, relaxed style, Rachael Hearson shows us what it's like to be a Health Visitor in the NHS. Hearson intertwines both her own personal life, with her professional life to give an insight into how NHS staff have to interweave the two throughout their day to day life.

It shows us the difficulties that a lot of new mothers who are struggling to make ends meet have to endure in their life, and you cannot help but feel empathetic towards them, and the health visitors who go out and see them. This book shines a light on health visitors which can often be overlooked when compared with other roles within the health service but Hearson does a fantastic job at bringing health visitors to the forefront and gives them the attention they deserve.

One comment I would make is that often, when memoirs are very clearly about a specific profession, I would like a little more focus on the professional recollections versus the personal ones and I feel that this book gives a little more attention to the latter.

All in all a nice, easy read that I'd recommend to anybody

Beautifully written heart warming and enlightening after haveing a baby my self and haveing a pretty useless health visitor even though I was a young mum who had also lost her own mother I wish I had of had you
You are an inspiration and people should aspires to be more like you