Muriel Garcia

Elaine Partnow

Chris Jensen

Rita Batchley

Do you know what nurses do for a living? Or maybe, you only think you do. Labor Pains deliver the truth.Ride along with, Paige O'Neill RN, a labor and delivery nurse who brings babies into the world for a living but can't seem to have another of her own. As a natural born healer, Paige intuitively knows how to relieve the pain of her patients; but when it comes to her own suffering she relies more and more on alcohol.When a healthcare Goliath takes over the small community hospital where Paige works, a new business plan focuses more on making money than caring for its patients. A tragic death becomes the tipping point and the nurses decide to take matters into their own hands. From the tender moments in the delivery room to the dark alleys of binge drinking, this timely trip will open your eyes to what really goes on behind the scenes of a large medical center. Labor Pains has many layers: as new lives struggle to come into the world; a united purpose grips the nurses and a political movement is born. In many workplaces, nurses need to do their jobs and go home, but at Mercy Hospital getting involved in politics has become a matter of life or death. Healthcare is changing. The battle lines between big box brands and patient care have been drawn and nurses can no longer remain neutral.Giving birth is hard, but giving birth to change can be even harder. A whole new meaning to Labor Pains emerges when a labor union organizes the nurses to stick together to make the necessary changes. A professional nurses' association, the Nurses Alliance for Quality Healthcare, teaches the nurses to push back in order to preserve the profession they believe in.In a tale filled with poignant birth stories, Labor Pains are necessary for a health care system that is dying to get better.“I am proud to have been a nurse for the past 32 years and I cannot encourage women enough to read Rita Batchley's book, LABOR PAINS. I was reluctant to read the book because I had lived that life. I was a labor and delivery nurse for 14 years before becoming a midwife and I was fearful of being too critical of Rita's book. But alas, in honor of this past Nurses' Day and at a friend's urging I started the book and was not able to put it down. Please support this hugely talented writer, and as a bonus you will have a whole new insight to the extraordinary highs, joys, and personal fulfillment of a labor and delivery nurse as well as the challenges of working in health care in the 21 century. Rita has written a very special book, and as a nurse I can't thank her enough.” Maureen Brett Mohyla, RN"Labor Pains, is very entertaining. Batchley's writing engages the reader with twists and turns from the first chapter right through to the very end. Nurses and students especially will enjoy the birthing stories while connecting with Paige around a variety of personal and professional trials and tribulations.Rita Batchley's ability to use fiction to illustrate how skilled assessments and interventions of seasoned nurses make huge differences in patient experience and clinical outcomes is fantastic! I have high praise for this because I believe it is imperative that nurses, doctors, administrators, and consumers gain insight into the value and complexity of RN work. And all too often it is illusive or invisible. Batchley's ability to make “it” visible is a gift to the profession and healthcare. -- -Beth Boynton, RN : Confident Voices in Healthcare

Pushing to Keep the Spirit of Nursing Alive

Labor Pains

Though a small book, Seekers of Truth and Tranquility contains thought-provoking ideas that may evoke personal experiences or may otherwise be of interest to the reader; or indeed prick their conscience when a poem relates to them personally. As a result, it may prove to be a worthwhile read. When news is shattering, And waves are battering, Filling us with fear, Take time to recline, Follow each line. Forget the troubles, Float into a bubble To realise Your secret thoughts: Enhancing and rewarding It will be.

Seekers of Truth and Tranquility

Haven HATES Mondays.She loathes them.Especially this Monday. This is the Monday that'll change her life, but will it be for better or worse?At first glance, it seems to be for the worst. Losing her job, boyfriend and supposed friend is not how Haven envisaged her week starting. Temporarily living with her best friend Spencer is not how she envisaged spending her week, and a new job is not what she expected to look forward to the following week.Things start to look up for Haven. Despite the nasty delivery, her life is taking a new turn that she embraces and loves. She finds a new job and a place to live that are perfect for her. Everything seems to be going well but little things creep up and destroy the one thing she cherished the most and can't live without.It was a shaky start but her professional life is going in the direction she's always wanted. If only she could say the same about her love life. After a failed long-term relationship, a blind date who is just like any guy you'd meet in a bar and a manwhore of a neighbour, she's left thinking that it's time to open the crazy cat lady starter box. All she wants is to be content with her life, but she's not. She's missing the one thing she's dreamed of since she was a little girl. To be loved.But what if it was in front of her the entire time?Will she be able to mend the broken bridges?Will she realise it was Love at First Glance?

Muriel Garcia

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