By Peter Jaret ~ Photographs by Karen Kasmauski ~ Senior Editor Marla Salmon ~ Foreword by Jimmy Carter

To care. To advocate. To innovate. To be a nurse.

In a moving tapestry of words and photographs, NURSE: A World of Care, documents and celebrates the vital and often invisible work of nurses throughout the globe. The many faces and voices of nurses are captured in compelling detail by photographer Karen Kasmauski and writer Peter Jaret. Together they paint an unforgettable and varied portrait of the profession, from the nurse midwives who walk long distances to deliver basic health care in the remote villages of Bangladesh, to the Alaska public health nurse who lives out of a sleeping bag to reach her patients, to the Thai hospice nurses who comfort and care for patients with AIDS.

Nursing requires expertise, ingenuity, and a deep sense of compassion. Like the profession it celebrates, this book appeals to both hearts and minds. Around the world, health care delivery systems are in crisis. In the poorest places, millions of people lack access to even the most basic care. In the world’s prosperous nations, the soaring cost of advanced medicine has begun to exact a crippling strain on budgets. High-tech medicine saves lives, but it has also led to impersonal health care systems that leave many patients feeling confused and sometimes abandoned. Shortages of nurses, meanwhile, have left rural clinics and state-of-the-art hospitals alike dangerously understaffed.

Nursing itself is rising to the challenge. Innovative programs, many of them created by nurses, offer solutions to the most pressing problems we face. As this book powerfully argues, nursing is critical to delivering health care in every corner of the world. Nurses are there when life begins and when it ends—offering expertise, comfort, and care. Only by recognizing and supporting their work can we hope to heal our ailing health care systems and ensure that nurses will continue to be there when we need them most.

Proceeds from the sale of this book contribute to the education of nurses worldwide.

2008 AJN Book of the Year award winner by the American Journal of Nursing.

2008 AAN Media award winner by the American Academy of Nursing.

"Nurses are essential to the health of all the world’s people, yet the global shortage of nurses continues to worsen. This book thoughtfully illuminates both the importance of nurses and the challenges they face."
-Jean Yan, Chief Scientist for Nursing and Midwifery, World Health Organization

"Brave, patient, energetic, creative, diligent, tireless, nutty, sweet, gentle, crucial, relentless—these are apt and suitable words for the astounding nurses of this bruised and blessed planet. But the best word for their attentive healing and hope is holy, and NURSE captures the verve and muscle of their active prayer better than any book I ever saw."
-Brian Doyle, Editor, Portland Magazine and author of The Wet Engine: Exploring the Mad Wild Miracle of the Heart"

Each photograph creates a sense of intrigue that urges the viewer to hurry along, turn the page, and see what is nextThis collection of photographs, together with the narrative that explains them, will undoubtedly leave one with a profound respect for nurses, an understanding of how the nursing profession has evolved, and the challenges that lie ahead.
-Source: JAMA book review

Nurse, A World of Care, with a foreword by President Jimmy Carter is “a good addition to school libraries” helping students see first hand the challenges and rewards of choosing nursing as a profession. This beautiful hardcover book with color photos and personal descriptions of nurses volunteering around the world is a thoughtful gift for your favorite nurse who, as we all do from time to time, needs a brief reminder of why we have remained committed to and love our profession.
-AORN Journal book review

About the Team
Dr. Marla Salmon, dean of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, is also a professor in nursing and public health and director of the university’s Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing. In her former position as director of the Division of Nursing at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Salmon led key federal programs aimed at shaping the nation’s nursing workforce. She has served as a member of the White House Taskforce on Healthcare Reform and a consultant to the World Health Organization. She continues to work on health care issues throughout the world.

Karen Kasmauski’s groundbreaking coverage on viruses, women’s issues, aging, immigration, and other pressing social topics have been featured in some 30 articles for National Geographic. While a contributing photographer-in-residence for the Geographic, she brokered a global health initiative between the Centers for Disease Control and the Geographic’s Missions Program. Her book, Impact: From the Frontlines of Global Health, co-authored with Peter Jaret, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2003.

Peter Jaret is an award-winning health reporter whose work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Health, Prevention, Vogue, Men’s Journal, Eating Well, and many other publications. He is the author of several books about health, including In Self-Defense: The Human Immune System and Heart Healthy for Life. He lives in northern California.