Awarded second place in the 2021 AJN Book of the Year Awards in Professional Development! Self-care. Well-being. Resilience. Happiness. Self-compassion. These are among today's self-help buzzwords. There are countless books, articles, and podcasts on these topics, many of which are essential resources for anyone seeking solid footing in today's world. Self-care remains imperative for nurses and other healthcare professionals as burnout, high attrition rates, emotional fatigue, and moral distress loom large over us, especially in the age of COVID-19. The people who so compassionately care for others are in dire need of care themselves. Self-care practices are essential because we need you. We need all the gifts that you bring to the nursing profession. Your future patients need you. Your future colleagues need you. We need you to become the best nurse you can possibly be so that you can support other young nurses as they, too, enter this profession. Nursing will afford you daily interactions that will change your patients' lives, strengthen your colleagues' resolve, and ripple beyond your immediate circle to surprising places. The gifts that you bring are beyond measure.
The reassuring bromides of'chicken soup for the soul'provide little solace for nurses-and, the people they serve in real-life hospitals, nursing homes, schools of nursing, and other settings. In the minefield of modern health care, there are myriad obstacles to quality patient care-including work overload, inadequate funds for nursing education and research, and poor communication between and within the professions, to name only a few. The seventy RNs whose stories are collected here by the award-winning journalist Suzanne Gordon know that effective advocacy can be challenging. It takes nurses willing to stand up for themselves, their coworkers, their patients, and the public.