Confessions of a Trauma Junkie

My Life as a Nurse Paramedic, 2nd Edition

By: Sherry Lynn Jones

Narrated by: Kristine M Bowen

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

Ride in the back of the ambulance with Sherry Lynn Jones.

Share the innermost feelings of emergency services workers as they encounter trauma, tragedy, redemption, and even a little humor. Sherry Lynn Jones has been an emergency medical technician, emergency room nurse, prison healthcare practitioner, and an on-scene critical incident debriefer. Most people who have observed or experienced physical, mental, or emotional crisis have single perspectives. This audiobook allows listeners to stand on both sides of the gurney; it details a progression from innocence to enlightened caregiver to burnout, glimpsing into each stage personally and professionally.

"Corrections" the third realm of emergency care behind layers of concrete and barbed wire. Join in the dangers, challenges, and truth-is-stranger-than-fiction humor of this updated and revised second edition of Confessions of a Trauma Junkie. In addition to stories from the streets and ERs, medics, nurses, and corrections officers share perceptions and coping skills from the other side of prisons' cuffs and clanging metal doors.

©2017 Sherry Lynn Jones (P)2018 Sherry Lynn Jones

Critic reviews

"A must read for those who choose to subject themselves to life at its best and at its worst. Sherry offers insight in the Emergency Response business that most people cannot imagine." (Maj. Gen. Richard L. Bowling, former Commanding General, USAF Auxiliary (CAP))

"Sherry Lynn Jones shares experiences and unique personal insights of first responders. Told with poetry, sensitivity and a touch of humor at times, all are real, providing views into realities EMTs, Nurses, and other first responders encounter. Recommended reading for anyone working with trauma, crises, critical incidents in any profession." (George W. Doherty, MS, LPC, president, Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute)

Great insight to Trauma EMS

I loved this book. It gave great insight to one persons experience into trauma ems. Not only as an RN in an ED, but in many many places. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story and it is inspiring me to one day continue my education to continue to be in this field.

Very interesting

Thank you to audiobook boom for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed reading Confessions of a Trauma Junkie by Sherry Lynn Jones. I was interested to learn what it is like to work as a medical professional and EMT. The author shares stories from her own life as well as anecdotes from fellow emergency care personnel. My favorite stories were the ones in which the author shared about her personal life and how her experiences in the medical field impacted her. Some stories are sad and some are surprisingly humorous, although I felt as if the entire memoir lacked an overarching narrative structure. Instead, the author shares brief vignettes divided into sections. An enjoyable read for anyone who is curious about what life is like on the other side of the gurney.

The narrator did an excellent job with this book and I her performance kept me engaged when my thoughts began to wander. Her empathetic performance brought something very special to this book.

Uneven

The story is a bizarre memoir; all over the place. Almost superficial in some places, and excruciatingly detailed in others. Her work in CISM (catastrophic incident something something - providing counselling to caregivers and first responders after a bad call) is fantastic work, but isn't what I expected half the book to be about.

The Experiences of a Paramedic/Trauma Nurse

This audiobook was provided to me for free, and at my request, by the publisher for the purpose of providing a voluntary review.

This book provides an overview of what motivates someone to become a paramedic and/or a registered nurse. It also goes into quite a bit of detail on how a person in such a profession deals with the trauma that they face each day. Through the author's own experiences, and essays from other trauma professionals, we see how the individuals deal with these experiences.

I had a misconception about the content of this book. I thought it would focus more on individual clinical experiences of the author. Instead, it is a much broader coverage of the trauma/emergency care profession. That being said, the book is informative and explains the emotional impact working in such a field entails.

The narration was very good. Kristine M Bowen uses a nice conversational style that I really liked.

Disjointed and a subpar narration

I enjoy medical books, and I try to read a couple a year if I can. This one caught my eye and I was looking forward to it. I expected some personal experiences and stories about patients, but the book was not exactly that. It felt more like a collection of stories in the medical field, but without a connecting thread. Some of the stories were from Sherry’s point of view, but some others were not. I was confused a couple of times as I was not sure who the event had happened to. It felt a bit like a bunch of anecdotes in the medical field, and while some were personal, the fact that others happened to other people, even to the point of novelizing some facts that no one could have known how they exactly happened, caused this book to be a bit disjointed. I enjoyed the first third or even half, but the book felt a bit too long for this genre, and I didn’t understand why some of the stories got included in the final mix. Towards the end, the word ‘disgusting’ is used instead of ‘disgusted’. This book would have definitely benefited from a good editor.

Another thing that didn’t sit very well with me was the abuse of acronyms and the consequent explanation of each one. Probably this would have worked better in the printed version and ebook, but it felt awkward in audio. It was a constant rain of acronyms, followed by what they stood for. I would have used the most obvious ones, and maybe substituted the ones that were less popular, or maybe included a glossary. This and the technicalities included in some of the stories made me think the book was aimed at professionals of the medical field, but then other stories were just the opposite, very personal and with little medical content, like the one that included the letter written by her daughter. I think the author could have written two or three different books with this material and get a better-balanced result.

There was too much religion in the stories for me. I appreciated that previous medical reads were more neutral in this aspect, and this is something I missed here.

I am sorry to say that Kristine M. Bowen’s narration was also not my cup of tea. Her narration style did not suit this kind of book, it felt just too matter of fact and perky, even when the events being narrated were heavy or tragic. She often stumbled over the words while reading, and it was quite distracting. There were also some issues with the audio production, like background noises and even music. It didn’t feel very professional.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Chapter 19 !!

The book itself is not memorable. Many mispronunciations in terms that the author, who is the narrator, used in her own book. Sad…
Lots of philosophy, for unknown reasons, some being a bit odd.
As a retired long-term hospital and EMS worker, much of this was old news. One new year’s Eve night comes to mind when the natives were particularly restless, and the trauma room floor became particularly sticky with dried blood. One of my co-workers said, “We should write a book!” My rejoinder was to reply that if we did, no one would believe it.
Chapter 19 is wonderful; probably the best part of the book. So many memories came to mind!
Overall, not really outstanding- If you can get past the philosophical expounding.

Great book!

I really enjoyed this book. I could relate to a lot of the scenarios and liked the humor. Good job Sherry.

Vignettes for non professionals

Won the audio in a giveaway and not sure how to give it a review as it is aimed at those outside of the callings while I am a retired RN who has worked all acute care units, several types of rehab and head trauma units in addition to jails and occupational health. It was not quite what I thought it was and does seem a bit graphic for civilians.
Narrator Kristine M Bowen strikes me as a mite too urgent and perky in her performance.

Interesting trauma stories

The stories were interesting, however they contained way too much minute details. The stories and viewpoints would be better if edited down. The author really cares about her patients. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Long, tedious, and boring

The first 25 chapters were filled with some interesting cases. After that, I couldn’t handle it any longer. There weren’t cases of emergent trauma, but long drawn out descriptions of crisis prevention teams using too many acronyms. I skipped to the beginning of a few chapters, and finally gave up. I marked it as finished and cut my loss. That is 4 hours of my life I can never get back.