Caring Lessons: A Review

Book review, memoir, , , 15 Comments

I ordered Lois Hoitenga Roelofs’ book, Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor’s Journey of Faith and Self, after having been a fan of her blog for several years. Lois writes with candour about her life challenges, and on the blog in particular, about her journey through her husband’s terminal cancer. It is the candour with which she writes that keeps me hooked. I wanted to know more about this brave and inspiring woman.

Caring Lessons covers Roelofs’ life and career, first as a reluctant nurse and teacher, and then, as the title suggests, as a practitioner and professor of nursing. I laughed at her failed attempts to convince her father nursing wasn’t for her, and cheered at the moment she found purpose in her calling. I nodded along as she wrote about her struggles as a stay-at-home mom, fighting the impulse to flee and could relate to every gut wrenching decision to go back to school or make a career change. Throughout her story, what emerges is the a passionate spirit.

Reading Roelofs’ memoir is like sitting down with a good friend and talking over old times. There is laughter and tears and under it all a sense of have been heard and understood. Even though I have no medical background, I found Caring Lessons to be an accessible and relevant read. From one woman to another.

I never feel quite qualified to assign ratings to books, but I will tell you that I’ve lined up a a list of readers to pass this book onto.

Caring Lessons is available through Amazon. I obtained my copy from the author.

Lois blog is Write Along With Me.

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Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

15 thoughts on “Caring Lessons: A Review”

  1. Pingback: R is for Review | Write Along with Me

  3. I read your review with a great deal of interest. I worked with a retired professor of nursing and two other teaching nurses. I was able to gain glimpses into the profession from our conversations. It sounds as though Lois’s book provides the full picture.

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    1. While she does offer glimpses of the medical world, her memoir is more about her personal journey – struggles and choices along the way. The anecdotes about nursing serve to illustrate her character and development.

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