I loved the language of kindness so was excited to read the courage to care! Christie draws upon her years of experience as a nurse to give an insightful, informative, compassionate description of her various roles as a student nurse and a qualified one whilst juggling the demands of family life, which I’m sure many of us nurses can totally empathise with! Harrowing tales of the cases she had cared for interspersed with positivity and hope and a background of care and compassion for all,provides a stark reminder to all of us health care professionals as we are now being tested with covid and all that that entails as we approach the second wave of this pandemic.
Thank you net galley for this early read.

This is the second nursing non-fiction book by author Christie Watson and once again she manages to show what being a Nurse really means in current times. Nurses do far more than they get credit for. Their job isn't just to administer medicines, take blood pressure, dress wounds etc. Those things are easily seen and measured by the powers that be but what they can't measure is the way Nurses make their patients and patients' families feel. The compassion and support they give during every interaction. The little things they do that aren't part of their job description but they do anyway just to make patients lives a little easier such as washing their hair whilst a patient is confined to bed, making someone a cup of tea during a home visit etc.
During The Courage To Care Christie visits Nurses in different areas of practice and introduces readers to the work that they do. We meet Nurses in the military, prisons, homeless shelters, community care, mental health and more. And whilst their actual clinical skills and tasks may differ what we discover is that all Nurses, no matter where they work will come across similar challenges such as lack of funding, time restrictions, difficult patients and that Nurses will find within themselves a drive to push past and overcome those challenges. They really do require the courage to care, especially in difficult situations. We read about teenage stab victims, children with eating disorders and self harm, men with depression, a pregnant woman and her baby in a serious traumatic accident, and covid-19 situations.
The book is incredibly well written with just the right balance of medical and personal aspects to allow readers to understand what Christie herself, and other Nurses have experienced. I absolutely love reading medical memoirs and this book hit all the right spots. I can't recommend it enough.

I was part of the Instagram Readalong of The Courage To Care: A Call For Compassion by Christie Watson, thanks to the TandemCollectiveUK team. They sent me the book, together with the discussion prompts, and me and an amazing group of bookstagrammers have been reading it and discussing it for the duration of five days. The Courage To Care is published by Vintage Books.

I chose to read The Courage to Care because both my auntie and mum are nurses. I also used to be a carer in a Care Home for people suffering from Dementia. The work nurses do, the hours they put into saving lives and the compassion and courage they have is incredible. I felt an obligation to read this book, and use my platform to emphasise how important nurses are.

In The Courage to Care, Christie Watson writes about the importance of nurses, not only in the hospitals, but just everywhere. The schools, on the streets, hospices, care homes, in prisons. And in Covid-19 times, when people need them the most, nurses are there, sacrificing their own health and families in order to help others. Their courage and bravery is something I have always admired, but especially in these hard times, it is something we shouldn’t forget.

This book is filled with different stories, showing nurses in different environments.

It is also filled with Christie’s personal stories and struggles, managing her nursing career, whilst also ongoing an adoption process and being a single parent.

It is very hard for me to write a detailed review of this book, without spoiling the stories for you, and I will do my best, because these stories are something that you should experience first-hand, for yourself.

With every story, we get close not just with the nurses, but with the patients and their families as well. We get to feel how they feel. And sometimes nurses are able to help them and bring happiness and hope to their lives. Other times, there is nothing else a nurse can do to help, except to just show compassion and make the patient feel comfortable. And during Covid-19 times, the nurses share the last moments with the people that couldn’t be with their loved ones.

This book made me cry more times than I could count, but it also made me giggle at times too.
Among all the sadness that comes with illnesses and hospitals, nurses are also there to make lives better for people. Give them hope. And for a moment, help patients forget that they are ill, even just for a moment.

I am so grateful to be able to read the Courage To Care.

And I am so grateful to be healthy at this very moment. This book made me appreciate the present. It reminded me to be kind and to show courage where needed, and help others who might need help. I cannot recommend this book enough!

I’ve talked before about Christie Watson’s fantastic book, The Language of Kindness. I was keen to read her next book inspired by her return to nursing in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

This book aims to feature more of the unsung NHS heroes. I love her anecdotes of when she was training. After reading this I have even more respect for the community nurses.

This book doesn’t grab your emotions quite to the extent that The Language of Kindness dies but it’s still a great memoir.

Incredibly uplifting, joyous, thoughtful, considered and timely. This book is a true reminder of how precious life is and how we can all make it a slightly nicer place to be by being kind.

As a Nurse myself I truly relate to all the stories here but for those non nurses tempted to read this, please do it’s brilliant!

What an enjoy book this was to read and equally quite enlightening the things that Christie has witnessed during both her professional career and private life. The book seemed to slip seamlessly between the two - starting off with something personal and then linking it to extended examples of using this skill/dealing with a similar issues while working.

This book makes you think about what nurses have to go through and more so with COVID19 but the author shows her compassionate side even working through difficult situations and the hard decisions nurses have to make in the interests of the patient.

Christie Watson has done it again! Such an emotional, poignant, heart-felt and incredible read. I was worried this wouldn’t live up to her first book, but it’s just as good. Pulled me in and didn’t let me go. Compassionate is the only word to describe this lovely lady. It was nice to hear about her family in this too.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I really enjoyed Christie’s first book and, if anything, this caught my heart strings more. Without being too graphic Christie manages to grab your heartstrings.....feeling happy and warm one moment and then so sad the next. Really good, and informing, reading.

A great insight into the different roles in nursing and the pressures Nurses face every day. Really interesting and informative read.

A beautiful book which encourages compassion not just for nurses but for us all. The writing is skilful and tender, the stories even more so. In a confusing climate which requires courage and care this is a vital book.

Thoroughly enjoyed this! A great sequel to the first book and a really great insight. Loved that they added updates to do with Covid-19 too.

Very well written, informative and heart wrenching. Beautiful stories sad and happy. Lovely read
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers and author for allowing me to read this book for my honest opinion

I haven’t read Christie’s previous book “The Language of Kindness” but I found that this one was fine to read alone and I don’t think I have missed any of her story.

I really liked Christie when reading this, she seemed like a very accepting, compassionate person, which is just the sort of person you want nursing you. The book covers a wide range of Christie’s career and personal life and even features the COVID-19 pandemic when she returned to nursing.

I found the book interesting and it really pulled on my heartstrings. I found the stories relating to the adoption of her son particularly interesting and heart wrenching in equal measure.

The only thing I did not like about this book was the jumping around of time lines. This is something that doesn’t just happen in this book though I have found it happening in lots of the medical books I have read recently. One minute you are reading a story about them in medical school, then a recent COVID chapter and then another chapter goes back to their childhood. It might just be me put I prefer things in chronological order. I also find that some of the stories get lost in this chopping and changing and there were times when I was left wondering what happened to the patient.

Aside from this though I found the book really interesting and written with a lot of heart.

Having also read the first of Christie’s book, I was very happy to be accepted to read this book for netgalley.

Just like The Language of Kindness, the Courage To Care tells the reader about Christie’s private life and her path and career in nursing. A valuable topic which is featured in this book is adoption. Big thumbs up for writing so openly about aspects of adopting.

I really liked the insights into the different yet similar tasks of different nurses and how personal stories about patients were interwoven with facts about nursing and the state of the NHS. The current pandemic is also featured, which I did not expect and which threw me off a bit because I personally try and avoid reading about it while it’s still so prevalent in our minds and reality.

I do really enjoy the writing style and can definitely recommend the book.

I really enjoyed this book!!

As a Health care assistant and aspiring nurse, Christie spoke through this book to me. It wasn't sugar coated and each story made me more determined than ever to be a politically active nurse in the future.

I enjoyed reading this book and learning about the diverse role she undertakes.
Very relevant at the moment

In The Courage to Care bestselling author Christie Watson reveals the remarkable extent of nurses’ work. A community mental-health nurse choreographs support for a man suffering from severe depression. A teen with stab wounds is treated by the critical-care team; his school nurse visits and he drops the bravado. A pregnant woman loses frightening amounts of blood following a car accident; it is a military nurse who synchronises the emergency department into immaculate order and focus.

Being a retired nurse I was looking forward to reading this book by Christie Watson. This is really well written book, with the normal tugging at heart strings yet the humour you need to get through some tough days. Story touches on Covid, but its not about this horrendous time

Thank you to #NetGalley, #RandomHouseUK #VintagePublishing and the author #ChristineWatson for ARC copy of this book

This is the first book I’ve read written by a nurse so I had an idea of what to expect but wanted to read things from a nurse’s perspective. I am in awe of healthcare professionals but for someone who works for the organisation that regulates nurses, midwives and nursing associates this added to my desire to help these professionals. It doesn’t speak highly of our government knowing that these professionals simply are paid or credited enough for such amazing work.

It was also helpful to read about firsthand experience of the adoption process.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Christie Watson and Random House UK for my copy of this book. I loved The Language of Kindness and also Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, so was really excited to be able to read this one and it didn't disappoint. I love how the raw, heartfelt honesty in Christie's writing; this book is incredibly moving, alternating as it does between stories of patients, experiences of nursing over time and the parts I loved best when Christie talks about her experiences of parenthood and adoption. This is a powerful and beautiful book that deserves to be widely read and Christie is a very gifted writer. Highly recommended.