Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World

by Sarah DiGregorio

“DiGregorio’s storytelling is pitch-perfect; narrative and nursing, she understands, come from the same place and both are concerned with a deep understanding of character and plot….This is a brilliant book, and DiGregorio is a beautiful writer. Taking Care deserves to be on the reading list for nursing and medical schools, and on the bedside table of all politicians." — New York Times Book Review In this sweeping cultural history of nursing from the Stone Age to the present, the critically acclaimed author of Early pays homage to the profession and makes an urgent call for change. Nurses have always been vital to human existence. A nurse was likely there when you were born and a nurse might well be there when you die. Familiar in hospitals and doctors’ offices, these dedicated health professionals can also be found in schools, prisons, and people’s homes; at summer camps; on cruise ships, and even at NASA. Yet despite being celebrated during the Covid-19 epidemic, nurses are often undermined and undervalued in ways that reflect misogyny and racism, and that extend to their working conditions—and affect the care available to everyone. But the potential power of nursing to create a healthier, more just world endures. The story of nursing is complicated. It is woven into war, plague, religion, the economy, and our individual lives in myriad ways. In Taking Care, journalist Sarah DiGregorio chronicles the lives of nurses past and tells the stories of those today—caregivers at the vital intersection of health care and community who are actively changing the world, often invisibly. An absorbing and empathetic work that combines storytelling with nuanced reporting, Taking Care examines how we have always tried to care for each other—the incredible ways we have succeeded and the ways in which we have failed. Fascinating, empowering and significant, it is a call for change and a love letter to the nurses of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Nursing, Medical, Audiobook, Health

320 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Sarah DiGregorio is the critically acclaimed author of EARLY: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human and TAKING CARE: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World. She is a journalist who has written on health care and other topics for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Insider, and Catapult. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her daughter and husband. She welcomes invitations to book clubs and other gatherings. For more information and to contact her, please visit her website: sarahdigregorio.com

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taking Care is a comprehensive coverage of nursing from the Stone Age up to the present. It is well-documented as well as personal with many specific stories about nursing care. It is not a book meant to just portray nurses as gentle and caring souls, although they are that too. The nursing profession has had a long history of patriarchy, racism and subservience. DiGregorio does an excellent job of detailing the history of how this came to be.

Nurses were around long before doctors. When laws were enacted requiring a medical license, the gender bias began. Only males were permitted at universities. Consequently, doctors
were at the hierarchy of healthcare often dictating the responsibilities and salaries of other providers. This often resulted in oppression and misogyny. But some historically esteemed nurses, such as Florence Nightingale, while advancing the profession by establishing nursing schools and improving hygiene, were racists and patronizing.

Gregorio is a freelance journalist who felt compelled to write this book after several medical emergencies involving her family brought her into close contact with nurses, nurses who went above and beyond in their care, nurses whose compassion and personal reassurances made horrific situations much more bearable. Anyone who has lived a number of years has been cared for by a nurse: at birth, at school, in offices. According to Yuval Noah Harari in his thought provoking book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, nursing will be one of the few professions that will not be replaced by A.I. That alone is mind-boggling to me.

Reading this beautifully written book has given me a broader understanding of the history of nursing as well as their long and continual struggle for respect and parity. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I liked this book’s empowering approach to discussing nursing, both its history and its present day. Sarah DiGregorio does a great job of highlighting the role of nurses throughout history, how despite the devaluing of the profession due to its perceived femininity, nurses have provided care and fought unjust forces for a long time. I appreciated her attention to issues of race and racism within the field of nursing and her calling attention to who’s often represented or left out when recalling the history of the profession. The present-day information about nurses going on strike felt compelling to read. While I thought the writing style was a bit dry and at times came across like a bunch of facts stacked on top of one another, I’d still recommend this book to those who are interested in nursing and want a comprehensive, more equity-focused view on the field.

[Charlie Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said, this essential book should be required reading for every nursing student. On a more personal note, I am someone in an advanced practice nursing program, who is confronted regularly by the dehumanizing parts of our current medical system and frequently questions why I (with my liberation focused politics) made this particular life choice (as opposed to running off the the woods to be a gay witch herbalist in a lil cottage).

This book helped heal my heart and ground me in a more radical vision of nursing, a nursing that refuses to be constrained by respectability politics, or bow down to embedded (racist, classist, patriarchal) hierarchies in healthcare. A nursing practice that as my new crush Lillian Wald (founder of the Henry Street Settlement) is “love in action”.

This book also gave me language to critique the parts of nursing that do harm: the veneration of racist Florence Nightengale and the erasure of her POC contemporaries (and predecessors!); the framing of nursing as just a kind of ‘natural feminine caring’ that facilitates exploitation; the complicity with many kinds of violence & attempted control of people’s bodies.

This book has given me tools as I enter more deeply into this profession, tools to demand nursing live up to its ideals as holistic care for individuals and communities, and examples of the kind of nursing I aspire to. I needed this book.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular. Starts off by debunking the whole Florence Nightingale mythos, and weaves in BIPOC voices, then takes us back to the very beginnings of nursing. Alternately infuriating and inspiring, and well-written to boot.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up. I was a little worried at first that this was going to be yet another thing that puts nurses on an unattainably high pedestal. Another thing that makes us out to be angels sent to earth to selflessly care for others because nursing is a NOBLE CALLING and the Heart of a Nurse is what heals people, not doctors or medicine. A huge part of why I chose nursing as a (second) career is that the job market is relatively stable for someone who had tentatively planned not to settle down in one place for her entire adult life. Feeling like you’re helping society and contributing something meaningful is nice and all, but sometimes, you’re just looking to get a paycheck. And nursing is really, really hard sometimes.

I’m glad to say that this was not the case. While this book certainly does proclaim the greatness of nurses, it wasn’t the kind of ego-stroking “heroes work here” stuff I was kind of expecting.

This book is well-written and researched. I very much enjoyed the inclusion of some of history’s lesser known nurse heroes, including many I’d never heard of before. What I appreciated most about this book was how it painted such a broad picture of what a nurse can be. Things that you might not immediately think about - like research nursing, home hospice nursing, school nursing, abortion care, policy making, etc. All of this made me think that this book should be on every nursing school syllabus. The nurses featured in this book feel like real, interesting people doing real, interesting work.

It also leaves you with a lot to think about in terms of your own nursing care. I recognized myself in some of her examples of personalized nursing care, and that made me think about how jaded I felt by the time I left my last bedside job. How my kindness and compassion has led me to be manipulated and used and has turned me into a more mistrusting person. It made me think about how I still don’t know how to feel about the APRN/NP scope of practice/physician oversight matter. It made me think about my own career trajectory. It made me think about my friends back at my old hospital who just successfully passed a vote to begin a union because of how unsafe conditions there had become. I think about my friends who remained at the bedside during the pandemic, while I had my less scary clinic job. And I think about how it feels when I see people complain about nurses for not being as “good” as they expected.

At the end of the day, nurses are just people trying to make it in this crazy world. And if we can do a little good or change the world a little, then that’s kinda cool.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering, clear, thoughtful and thought-provoking. I’m so glad I took the time to read this book (and appreciate that it was relatively short at just over 200 pages!)

[Nicole DePace · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a nurse, I think this book should be required reading for nurses. It is also essential reading for understanding justice, politics, community, and healing. It is essential that nurses understand our history, our flaws, and our absolutely essential work. It is equally essential that the public shares this understanding. Our collective health depends on it.

Nursing is simply and beautifully described in the spirit of the late Marcella LeBeau (102 year old Native American Nurse): “Her scope of practice was life: anything that affected the well-being of her community was within the purview of her nursing.”

[Jean DeDonder]

This book challenged my understanding of nursing history. The author, although not a nurse, made excellent points regarding the inherent bias found in what is recorded as “history.” Most of her references I have personally read since I taught nursing history as a nursing professor. I believe this book needs to be read in concert with more traditional accounts to ensure accuracy.

[Rosslyn Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A love letter to the nurses of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” I wish this book had been a required read during nursing school. Overall, a very nice collection of personal stories and anecdotes relating to many different kinds of nursing experience and nurses own stories that combined well with a history of nursing from the Stone Age to present day. I really appreciated how this book acknowledged how nursing school universally forces this idealized version of Florence Nightingale as the hero and founder of modern nursing, when in reality she actively contributed to the many issues of racism and classism that took place throughout history and that continues to be ignored by many modern day nursing programs. Truly think every nurse should read this and honestly every non-nurse as well.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some time in life, everyone is/has been in the care of a nurse(s). there is a memorable nurse in everyone's life it seems. Taking Care chronicles the history of nursing as well as the present of nursing. I found the history fascinating. Digregorio relates these facts in non-technical language: easy on the reader and very understandable. By giving anecdotal stories about events, nurses, programs, etc Digregorio keeps interest going. Information (all interesting) that tells the importance of nursing as far back as the beginning of civilization.

A powerful chapter was Endings where Digregorio chronicles the approach to Hospice - it's beginnings and development. Excellent.

[Emma Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book would be really interesting to someone who is interested in nursing but isn’t necessarily a nurse themselves. I found this information to be things I had learned in class and didn’t feel like the information was presented in a new or exciting way than how I had first experienced. I know how important nurses and nursing is which probably made me not the intended target of this book. However I see the potential for someone who wants to learn!

[Queyka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational and inspiring

I read this book as a text for my global/population nursing class. I trusted my professor’s judgment that this would be an impactful book. And it was. It taught me about where nurses come from. It inspired me to take action toward the nursing profession that I want to see in the future as a current nursing student.

[Anna Buckner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every nurse should have this book.
Anyone who has ever needed or will ever need a nurse should also read this book. This defines nursing and its broad definition so beautifully.

[Toni Glover · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book, beautifully written, that every nurse should read and absorb into practice.

[Sophie Schott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially enjoyed the discussions about gender and nursing and the history behind ever-present nursing shortages

[Maggie Tibbitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I asked Brown how she combatted feelings of hopelessness. She said, "Having a historical understanding of how professional nurses and midwives have always served our community is really helpful. Regardless of what is going on, the priority has always been the health and wellness of our community members.'"

I have been working as a Certified Nurse Assistant for a little over a year now. Entering nursing school has become an increasingly daunting hurdle as I have been worn down by the realities of bedside care. I needed this book, which brought tears to my eyes several times, to renew my faith in the nursing I envisioned when I began my career change. The quote above is spot on for what more of us in nursing need: a reminder that the current healthcare landscape does not need to be hopeless, we can be inspired by the millions that have come before us and continue a tradition of holistic care.

I have had a difficult time seeing myself working in the setting I do now, which is in the hospital within a system (capitalism/administration) that doesn't prioritize patients the way I expected when going into healthcare. After reading this book, however, I can finally see so many roles that I might fit in to as a nurse: in community health, palliative care, and harm reduction substance abuse nursing. I am so grateful to Sarah DiGregorio for writing this book and making me hopeful AND educating me on the beautiful, yet still problematic, history of nursing. We have a long ways to go to undo the harm done on BIPOC nurses and patients, but as this book reminds us, nursing has so much power that we must harness. I have so much to say about this book and will continue to recommend it to all my coworkers so I can talk to them about it.

[Noonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent piece of work; much appreciated.💕

[Livia Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked learning about how the scope of nursing has constantly been changing; how we came to be in our current healthcare set up is so interesting!

Nurses are often the first to notice/voice a patient’s concern and are deeply connected to the human experience.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was skeptical, because a lot of books on nursing are trite, and this one was written by a non-nurse. It was comprehensive, informative, and a booster for burn- out. It was not afraid to touch on all aspects of the nursing dilemma, from low- staffing, to social issues, climate change as it relates to health, and collectives, and nurses fighting for change.

[July Heng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a love letter written to nurses, thank you.


“The reality that nursing has many cultural meanings and involves some of the most intimate and profound interactions humans can have with one another. How we care for each other; how we wish to be cared for when we are sick, or injured, or in pain, or giving birth, or dying, or being born — these are some of the most highly charged experiences we have.”

[Grace Retzlaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is told from the perspective of a woman who has spent a lot of her life surrounded by nurses. She walks us through the history of nursing. I didn't really like the book because it lacked the personal knowledge of being a nurse. The writer isn't actually a nurse. I didn't find it very interesting because it was more of just a history book about nursing throughout the years. The motif of the book is the journey of nursing throughout the years. I would not read this book again but I would recommend it to someone interested in learning about the history of nursing.

[Dale Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

(NF) 06.18.2023: per Sunday NY Times recommendation; this non-fiction is about nurses (I am a retired one), so feel I absolutely must buy and read this one, then pass around my local Berea College nursing group of friends, which has met routinely 3-4 times yearly for over 9 years!!!...07.03.2023: very detailed accounts of certain aspects of nursing, well done with an obvious huge amount of research. Lots of lengthy focus on the people the author notes as having been important to the evolution of nursing: these stories made the more detailed aspects of nursing history more manageable…it will be interesting to see what my local peer group decides about this book, if they even choose to read it; 2023 purchased hardcover, 210 pgs.

[Whowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

You think you know about nursing?

I’ve been a nurse for fifty years. Reading this book taught me a few things about the history of my profession, and introduced me to a few people I didn’t know about and what their work is. More than anything, though, it made me even more fiercely proud to be in their company, to recognize how things I have done —and still do— are part and parcel of the care nurses have always done. It makes me want to go shake some more lapels and get more done.
This book should be required reading for every nursing student whose idea of nursing is “what nurses do,” i.e., tasks and activities, but need to leave that behind so they can focus on what nurses ARE. It should be required reading for medical students, physicians, and legislators. And for everyone who might be sick or at risk of losing the health they take for granted. You need a nurse to save your life, as Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio famously said. This book will tell you why.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!! Such a worthwhile and informative read. I really wish this had been part of my nursing education. Highly recommend 🤩

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Taking Care” is a book about nurses and nursing and claims to talk about their “Power to change our world” as quoted in its subtitle.

Before providing my thoughts, I want to say that I love nurses. Not only is my mother a retired nurse, who worked during much of my childhood, but the nurses I’ve encountered in both medical and personal situations (no, I’ve never really dated a nurse) have been great.

So, when the author starts talking about nurses being with us from the moment we were born to quite possibly being there when we leave this world, I had to read this book.

The book, unfortunately, didn’t live up to this great potential.

I had expected this book to have uplifting stories; rather, I read mostly stories of how nurses have been victims of a “patriarchal” (my quote) medical system.

I had expected Taking Care to be a book about how nurses were a unified and noble profession; rather, I read stories about how black nurses were excluded from white hospitals.

I had expected a series of articles on how the world was so much better with nurses in it and how we can learn from them all; rather, I read about struggles that various nurses faced across the United States of America during such crises as AIDS and COVID-19.

There is just too much victimhood in the world and this book doesn’t help present the professional in the best light by highlighting the "nurses as victim" story. That's a totally different agenda.

Nurses are amazing and there could have been more amazing stories; rather (sorry to use this again) the stories were dull. Further there was always this underlying theme of social justice playing out in the work.

Does this show “The Power to change our world”? Hardly. As a result, the book for me was largely a failure.

If the author wanted to rewrite the book and accomplish this mission, I suggest that she refer more to patients about their experience. Nurses have worked wonders and there are stories that even I can tell of how they've helped me during the times I been in hospitals. And I'm certain every doctor, nurse, and hospital worker, can tell you many heroic and compassionate stories about amazing nurses. This would have made the book much more interesting and on target.

I also suggest the author look beyond America in telling the stories about nurses because it is a most unusual medical system. Clearly there are problems with nursing but the mission of the book wasn't to record these problems.

Finally I suggest that Sarah DiGregorio leave out the social justice/injustice elements of the book, as this should be part of another work. It just doesn’t help with the book's mission.

It’s not a terrible book, and I can see some nurses who have are disillusioned with modern medicine liking it; but I think it could have been so much better.

[Sarah Gilhula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting this book to be dry, or feel like homework, even though I'm 6 years out of nursing school. I could not have been more wrong! This book is easy to read, one of the few non-fiction books I've picked up lately that I actually wanted to keep going back to - not to mention one of the rare books I feel compelled to write a review for! DiGregorio writes in a way that is engaging, insightful (especially for someone not in the nursing profession), and informative. The way she weaves together history, current events, her personal experiences, and interviews with individual nurses makes for a dynamic read. The historical context she provides is fascinating and illuminating - and I certainly didn't learn the vast majority of it in nursing school.

The only area that I found lacking was the chapter on identity. Chapter 3 is pretty much ALL historical context and zero present-day context. Providing the long and varied history of racism, classism, and discrimination in the nursing profession is absolutely important to understanding how the current workforce of registered nurses came to be overwhelmingly white and middle/upper class. However, what this section is missing is 1) stories from nurses of today about the discrimination and racism they still face, and 2) more information about the efforts of those trying to diversify nursing in the present-day. I was really looking forward to learning more about #2 in particular, as having nurses who reflect the population is so important to providing truly effective and compassionate care. There are a few paragraphs in the introduction that briefly address the issue, but I think the book would be stronger, and readers would benefit, from a more substantive discussion.

Overall, I cannot recommend this book highly enough! I believe non-nurses will get a lot out of it, for, as DiGregorio astutely points out, nursing affects all of us and reaches into all facets of life. As a nurse, this book has broadened my own definition of nursing, and has both inspired me and reminded me of why I became a nurse in the first place.

[Emily Poche · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read the forward, I was a little skeptical of the author. As a nurse, I just didn’t really trust a discussion of the nurse experience that captured the nuance of the combination of hero worship—moralizing—too much stress that comes with the role. I just was afraid this would be either a “lady with a lamp” or a “nurses are overrated and sToOpId” take. I was greatly shocked to find a very complete, balanced take on the challenges and strengths of the modern and historical nurse.

I loved the way that the book gave contextualization to the pre-modern nursing era and the history of nursing. I loved that it discussed figures like Sanger and Nightingale with a critical eye while still admitting their contributions. More so, it highlighted the nursing pioneers that didn’t get the credit they deserved like Seacole and Ward. Then I liked the discussions of nursing in the modern era due to the fact that the author discussed a broad range of issues that concern nurses from politics to morale injury.

This should be required reading for nursing students or nurses early in their career. It summarizes so much that doesn’t get covered in school but which is so valid for our understanding of the profession.

[MFC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Sarah, a journalist, captures the professionalism of nursing and indepth descriptions of a range of nurses (past and present) who are (or were) very professional in their respective fields. She showcases a number of PhD nurses, Nurse Practitioners, midwives, clinical specialists, RNs, LPN, bedside nurses, assistants in nursing and nurses in a historical or broad sense who have 'nursed' but are 'unqualified.' She convincingly showcased public health and advocacy and nurses in politics or passionate about climate change - nurses driven from wanting to make the big picture better, not just their carved out world of care. Sarah also writes of some of the clear constraints - that nurses are part of the 'cost' of care that hospitals must wear - rather than a profession charging for their care and thus 'earning' for the hospitals/health care institutions and the almighty insurance companies. Wow - I wrote my own PhD studying whether (Australian) nurses had achieved a sense of being a professional in their field, but many were so bogged down in bureaucracy and unachievable workloads that they remain cynical about change. This book gives both kudos and HOPE for nursing as a profession. Thank you Sarah DiGregorio.

[Erin Ahearn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adequate account of the history of nursing, radical in parts of its message and well researched, I would definitely recommend it to someone who in nursing school, or interested in learning more about the profession. I appreciated the attention to non-white nurses, harm reduction and birth control. At times it felt like it was a stream of information and examples without much nuance besides spewing facts, or sometimes painting a flowery superhuman view of nursing.
I did consider it to be lacking in its scope, the author focused heavily on nursing in the United States and the UK, but left Native American nursing to an epilogue afterthought, providing a largely Eurocentric view of the development of nursing prior to 19th century. Focus was paid to nuns and religious orders of nurses but no mention was made of the lesbian nurses who cared for those dying of AIDS in the 90s, only the brief mention of an unspecified ward of nurses in San Francisco who provided AIDs hospice care.
A good read, a well-written and engaging introduction into the role of nursing in our current world.

[Maryalice · Rating 5 out of 5]

As several reviewers have mentioned, this book should be required reading for all nurses. Actually, it should be read by anyone concerned with our failing health care system DiGregorio highlights the best of nursing without ignoring where we can improve. Her theme of nursing as healthcare for everyone is so right and so obvious that it should be required for any policy professional or politician. Her choice of examples of areas where nurses are leaders is broad—women’s health, school nursing, addiction care, military nursing but in every setting the author makes clear the role of nurses to assess, plan, intervene and evaluate which is the nursing process. Please read this book and send a copy to your favorite nurse whether a new grad or a retired senior. Thank you Sarah DiGregorio.