RNAO members Tilda Shalof and Lisa Mochrie have co-authored a book called The Handover: A Nurse’s Last Shift. The title is a play on the practice of a handover from one nurse to another on the next shift. This exchange of knowledge is a critical part of safe, effective nursing practice.

In a CBC Radio interview (Jan. 25), Mochrie, who is practising in acute care, shared that starting her nursing career during the pandemic was difficult. “There wasn’t a shift where I wasn’t coming home with marks on my face from my N95 mask or putting patients into body bags,” she recalled.  She shared that she leaned on Shalof, who is retired, during that time through phone calls and letters as she found it hard to confide in others who don’t work in health care. “I was grappling with some of the things my non-health care provider friends were dealing with. But I had this additional ball that I was juggling of the traumas and the stories that the health-care system at the time.”

Shalof said that what surprised her the most during the pandemic was watching early career nurses face the turmoil head on. “I had seen crises before. I had lived through SARS,” she told CBC. “It was really shocking to see what Lisa and her cohort go through so young in their careers.”

“We’ve dedicated this book to those who stay,” Shalof said. “There’s so many reasons to leave (nursing) and yet there are many gifts you can win for yourself if you decide to stay.”