A Book Review of Call the Nurse

Since reading Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, I've been asking my mother lots of questions about her time at nursing school in Philadelphia in the late '60s to see how it compares with Cherry Ames' adventures in the vintage novels.  Mom said that it's been fun recounting to me a traumatic, but very good, time in her life.  So when she saw Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle on my recent library stack, she seemed delighted that my current fascination with nursing is continuing. 

Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeod is a delight.  Now, that's not to say that this book is all peaches and cream.  It's about people and their plights - some charming, some humorous.  But human nature being what it is - some of the stories, though not terribly graphic, are tragic and downright gruesome.

With that said, I loved this tale of the adventures of a woman and her family whose dream comes true  to live on a tiny, and incredibly beautiful, island in the Scottish Hebrides.  Set in the '70s, without many of the modern conveniences of the rest of Europe, the stories of "The Nurse's" duties and patients are varied and incredibly fascinating.  It is a heartwarming book that doesn't hide the vices of man but also shines forth the compassion, kindness and lengths to which others will go for their neighbors.