Pivotal Moments in Nursing Volume II, Beth P. Houser and Kathy N. Player. Indianapolis, Ind: Sigma Theta Tau International. 443 pages, soft cover, $29.95, http://www.nursingknowledge.org/STTI/books. Note: if purchased with Volume I*at the same time, a 25% discount is applied to both books.
Pivotal Moments used the personal story approach in their first book and it worked so well that they were asked to do a second book. While Conversations With[horizontal ellipsis] shared stories from this one group that meets in Philadelphia, the focus of Pivotal Moments is leaders who changed the path of our profession. They chose the following leaders to interview for Volume II: Richard Henry Carmona, Mary Elizabeth Carnegie, Leah L. Curtin, Imogene M. King, Ruth Watson Lubic, Margaret L. McClure, Marla Salmon, Judith Shamian, Grayce Sills, Kirsten Stallknecht, and Florence Wald.
As in Volume I, Houser and Player share not just the successes of these leaders (and they are all successful), and not just what things they did that truly influenced and changed nursing. They include personal vignettes from the time they were born, their early experiences, decisions made, paths took, lessons learned. All is told in story form so that the reader can connect with the leader as if they were present in the interview. Houser and Player, both having education as part of their own personal passion, include an appendix of questions for faculty or healthcare educators to use to help teach leadership to their students. Pivotal Moments is warm, inspiring, reflective, and easy reading. Marla Salmon in Pivotal Moments:
If there is one thing I could inject in every young nurse, it would be the notion that you should approach possibilities with a 'why not' attitude, rather than finding a million reasons for not going forward. (p 225)
Marla Salmon in Conversations With[horizontal ellipsis]
Good leadership is a conscious enterprise. All that you think, envision, decide, and do are guided at some level by what you believe a leader is and does. (p 3)
If you enjoy conversations, stories, and leadership, you will enjoy all these books. To end, let me quote the Honorable Shirley S. Chater from her foreword in Conversations With[horizontal ellipsis].
The lessons of leadership found within are profoundly personal and quite different from those found in ordinary textbooks [horizontal ellipsis]. These personal accounts of leadership also should encourage us to tell our own stories of leadership so that others may learn from and be empowered by them. (p xvi)
*Volume I was reviewed in the July-September 2005 issue of NAQ. [Context Link]