WebMarApr2019

26 | www.westendermagazine.com
1
The Language
of Kindness
by Christie Watson
BY BRIAN TOAL
WESTENDER’s
COVER TO COVER
Christie Watson was a nurse for twenty years and
is now the patron of the Royal College of Nursing
Foundation. This is a truly astonishing book which
made me laugh, cry and reflect in equal measure.
Watson takes us on a journey
through her nursing career,
encompassing years in A+E,
midwifery, PICU, oncology and
several other specialities. In each
chapter there is a clear focus on
a type of patient, but the thread
which glistens throughout the
whole book is the element of
kindness.
The author is frank and
unashamedly depicts her terror
and revulsion at times with what
she had to contend with as a
student nurse. What I found
particularly humbling was the
candour with which she conveys
humans in various states of illness,
dying and despair. There are no
pulled punches here and she is
ever keen to remind us of the
stark differences between the
role of a nurse and the role of
a doctor.
Often the doctors arrive in a
whirlwind, diagnose or operate,
then leave. The nurses have
done all the preparatory work to
ensure that the child will sit still
long enough to have a needle
inserted into their bones, or that
the hysterical mother remains calm
long enough for the doctors and
patient to remain calm. The nurses
also occupy roles far beyond the
criteria stipulated in the nursing
manual: singing songs to children,
comforting grieving relatives
and innumerable other acts of
kindness.
The mundane, everyday roles of washing, toileting, wiping,
brushing, changing, feeding and watering are all part and
parcel of the nurse’s day, but at any moment a call can send
them scrambling to someone in arrest. This constant lurch from
calmness and mundanity to adrenaline and drama is clearly
exhausting and takes a heavy emotional toll on the nurse.
There is a very touching section where Watson deals with
the death of her father. This will be difficult to read for those
who have lost a loved one to cancer, but it helps the reader to
understand that nurses have personal lives with their own joys
and sorrows too, although these have to be left behind at the
start of a shift.
Watson also makes some pretty unequivocal statements
about the dearth of funding for nurses and the clear staffing crisis
in the NHS. The story of her daughter using sellotape to repair her
shoes illustrates this better than any facts or figures. I read the
Waterstones edition, which has an interesting afterword. This is
an important book for us all to read as we are all affected, or will
be affected, by the issues Watson raises. We all need kindness.