Where Night Is Day

James Kelly works in critical care as an RN in the ICU at Lovelace Women's Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Introduction1. The Voyage into the Sea of Critical Illness2. Diagnosis, Diagnosis, Diagnosis3. Nursing Isn't a Journey4. One More Day5. The Dream of Cure6. Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not7. Caring8. Medicine as Ghost Rain9. Dying10. Poetic and Tragic Murmurings of the Everyday11. They Tell Us Everything12. Can They Hear?13. Leaving Ends the Love14. The HorizonEpilogueNotes

James Kelly's telling of life in an ICU provides a unique perspective on the daily realities of critical care professionals.... He seamlessly integrates the complexities of critical care and of the organizational politics surrounding the ICU. Experienced and novice health care professionals will find this work to be entertaining, humbling, and thought provoking, while lay readers can learn from the complex realities of critical care. Kelly perceptively articulates what it means to experience daily life and death in the critical care environment. His compelling story will capture your attention, cover to cover.(Citation from from the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award Committee) This book is a must read for all nursing and medical students. Here, critical care nurse Kelly shares his experiences in an ICU in New Mexico over a 13-week period. He also perfectly describes the experiences of the ICU patients and their families—what they see, do, and reflect on during this time. Lastly, he discusses his interactions with physicians, and explains how nurses and doctors collaborate to accomplish the common goals of keeping patients comfortable, sedated, and alive. Kelly successfully depicts 'the good' and 'the bad' of ICUs. He tells the stories of individual patients and families, and describes the ICU subculture in a graphic, realistic manner. He conveys the nurse's perspective on the grueling experience of having to make life-and-death decisions on a daily basis. He clearly shows how emotional, and sometimes unemotional, a nurse must be to survive this type of professional setting.... Highly recommended.(Choice) This revealing personal account blends the day-to-day drama of life in the ICU with a fascinating history of medicine, hospitals, nursing, and intensive care—told through the eyes of Kelly, a critical care nurse at Lovelace Women's Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over a twelve-week period in the ICU..The evocative language puts the reader in Kelly's shoes—in the halls and bedsides of the ICU.- Jessica Bylander (Health Affairs)