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clues. They are warriors, called to serve at the first sign of outbreak, fighting infection, containing disease. They are gatekeepers, turning staff members away when patients need a break from procedures, a nap, or a moment to digest their circumstances. They are scientists, constantly learning, tackling sociology, psychology, physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, chemistry, microbiology. They are advocates, lobbying physicians for or against procedures, for pain assistance, for a few more minutes of time. They are teachers, educating people about their condition, demonstrating home healthcare to patients and parents: how to suction a tracheostomy, change an airway, inject a medication, breastfeed a newborn. They are the muscle, holding patients down to insert or remove tubes or needles, pushing people to get out of bed following surgery, breaking a sweat when performing CPR, lifting, moving, pushing, forcing, turning. They are confidantes, protectors, communicators, comforters, nurturers; easing fears, offering solace, cradling babies whose parents can’t be there, consoling loved ones who feel that all hope is gone. They are multitaskers: supporting, coordinating, and inhabiting all of these roles at once. And they are lionhearted diplomats, helping a patient die with dignity in one room, facilitating a recovery in the next, keeping their composure even when they are shaken to the core.
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    To examine what it is like to be a member of this secret club, I interviewed hundreds of nurses in the United States and several other countries. Essays based on their perspectives of the behind-the-scenes realities of nursing support stories that follow a year in the life of four ER nurses in an unnamed region of this country. Most of the people and hospitals in this book have pseudonyms and/or identifying details changed or omitted to protect their privacy. Some chronologies have been shifted.
    The nurses I chose as main characters illustrate a variety of triumphs and struggles common in the profession. Confident, funny, and charmingly bossy, Molly is well loved by both patients and staff. When Pines Memorial’s anti-nurse policy changes lead her to quit her job, she signs with an agency instead. Molly has given herself one year to find a hospital that treats nurses and patients well enough that she would want to join its staff. At the same time, she begins fertility treatments that place her on the other side of the curtain.
    Lara, an able, trustworthy, committed ER nurse at South General, continues to battle the temptations of prescription drugs that are preposterously easy to steal, and doesn’t know that the coming year will bring major events that could trigger her downfall. Juliette, an ER nurse at Pines, is a hard worker who doesn’t hesitate to advocate loudly for her patients even when it is not in her own best interest to do so. Her blunt outspokenness does not endear her to many of her colleagues. Subsequently, she feels unwelcome in a workplace where patients’ lives depend on collegiality and communication among staff. And at Citycenter Hospital, Sam is a new nurse, young and awkward, whose introversion can come across as unprofessional. Sam is discouraged by her doctors’ and administrators’ overall lack of respect for nurses, but she has to overcome other hurdles, including rumors about her promiscuity.
    These four women and the other nurses I interviewed voice a rallying cry for their colleagues. Through their stories and others’, this book presents an extensively researched snapshot of a subculture as well as an investigation of the medical industry’s treatment of the nursing profession. Physicians grapple with some of the same problems as nurses, and countless skilled and compassionate doctors treat patients, solve medical mysteries, and save lives. Physicians’ voices are already heeded, however. This is not their story. As such, some doctors may be depicted negatively in the stories to