NURSING AMERICA: One Year Behind the Nursing Stations of an Inner-City Hospital

Eight nurses from varied specialties are brought to life in this decidedly unsentimental look at a public health facility, as Balfour follows them around in the trauma, burn and adult special care units at the Regional Medical Center ("the Med") in Memphis, Tenn. He also spends time with Rhonda Nelson, who supervises 500 nurses. One of the very few African-American chief nursing officers in a major medical center, Nelson believes in the power of prayer and invites the author to a three-hour service at the Temple of Deliverance church. Religious faith is common to many of the staff at the Med. Marye Bernard, a nurse practitioner, is spiritually committed to alleviating the pain of her poor, black and very ill HIV-positive patients, but she also believes that monetary handouts such as for disability lead to dependency. Balfour, a television journalist and author of Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8), captures the tough but dedicated staff, often letting them speak for themselves, and the difficulties of working in an environment where the budget is always in crisis; he also conveys the role race has always played in Memphis. The narrative rambles from topic to topic and nurse to nurse, but the portraits are sharp and well observed. B&w photos. Agent, Isobel Dixon. (Feb.)