WordCrafter Non-Fiction
The Ones Who Stayed With Me: Raw Stories From the Bedside, by Nurse Sammy
Chronicles of the journey into the medical field as a young nurse and beyond, told with raw sensitivity and compassion. The Ones Who Stayed with Me offers small glimpses into the world of an L.P.N. put in difficult, often touching or humorous, situations—and Nurse Sammy’s courage, vulnerability, and insight are a gift to us all. In these pages, Nurse Sammy tells her story and that of those she met along the way.
Short Trailer
Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/OnesWhoStayed
What Readers Are Saying About The Ones Who Stayed With Me
Peggy’s review of The Ones Who Stayed With Me: Raw Stories From the Bedside | Goodreads
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“If you are thinking about the nursing field eye opening if you have been a nurse for any length of time you know this book is spot on. It’s a good read.“
– Rosie O. – https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3NOP29GDE8NML
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“The structure of the book initially threw me off, but as I read on I could see that that it works wonderfully.
I found myself immersed into the stories.
The Ones Who Stayed With Me by Sammy the Nurse, is a powerful debut collection of true stories that leaves a lasting impression on both the heart and mind. These narratives are raw, honest, and emotionally intense—sometimes humorous always compassionate—and reveal how Grace can be found in the merciful field of nursing through care, service, and human connection.
Written in a memoir-style, journalistic format, Nurse Sammy chronicles eight years of her life working as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). She guides readers through her journey from the very beginning, presenting her experiences through a series of chronological snapshots. The book may be read cover to cover, or opened at random, as each chapter stands on its own while contributing to a larger, meaningful whole. These stories explore life’s beginnings, endings, and everything in between, taking place in rehab centers, memory care halls, assisted living facilities, private homes, and wherever compassionate care is needed most.
Interwoven throughout the book are deeply personal reflections on heartache, surviving abuse, profound grief, a lost marriage, and ultimately, a healing and rediscovered love. These stories explore opening chapter, This Job Will Break Your Heart, immediately grounds the reader in the emotional reality of nursing, while also emphasizing resilience, strength, and the wisdom gained through hardship.
Each chapter offers a gripping short story filled with Nurse Sammy’s experiences, emotions, and adventures in the field. Not every story has a happy ending—some have no ending at all—but each carries a moral and life lesson, delivered with sincerity, empathy, and at times, gentle humor. For readers considering a career in caregiving or nursing, this book provides invaluable insight into both the emotional demands and the profound rewards of the profession.
Ultimately, The Ones Who Stayed With Me serves as a moving reminder that angels often appear in our darkest hours—sometimes wearing scrubs.“
– Esigned – A Wonderful read!
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“Whew! Even though I am not a member of this book’s target audience, its stories hooked me. (I admit, with a mother who was an RN from the late 1940s and returned to the profession after raising seven children, and a sister who works as a Nurse Anesthetist with a daughter whose first year of being a nurse was during the COVID epidemic, a story collection penned by an author named “Nurse Sammy” evoked my curiosity.)
(Note—Nurse Sammy never gives her full name, and she refers to ALL male patients as “John” and ALL female patients as “Jane,” to preserve everyone’s “identities.”)
Once reading these episodes, I was snared. Nurse Sammy penned these stories about her experiences serving in an array of positions in the nursing profession, (which she entered when she was 18), as a guide for those entering that field. By age 20, she served as a night shift Charge Nurse for a huge retirement community enclosed in a building linked to “elegant corridors easy to get lost in.” There, she “oversaw 190 residents, six Med Aides, and fourteen CNAs until 10 pm.” After that hour, she reminisced, she and six CNAs served that retirement home.…”
—Lindsey Martin-Bowen – THE ONES WHO STAYED WITH ME shares how to be a top nurse by showing others compassion
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Having worked in the health care industry, I was intrigued when I read about this book on the WordCrafter Press blog. I’m glad I picked it up.
I like how Nurse Sammy starts with a chronological listing of all the places where she worked that includes how much she was paid, how long her shifts were, and other information plus her thoughts on each position. She then tells a touching story about how her great-grandmother, in a way, inspired her to become a nurse.
Like me, Nurse Sammy worked primarily with the geriatric population. Some of her stories reminded me of similar experiences I had as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents. Some pieces made me laugh while others made me mad. Those interested in a career in nursing will appreciate her tips on surviving nursing school at the end.
As a child, I wanted to be a nurse before realizing my visual impairment might be a problem and before I threw up after dissecting frogs in eighth grade science class. Though it can be rewarding, even for those with good eyes, nursing is a challenge not for the faint of heart. I like how Nurse Sammy helps readers understand this.
At age 64, I’m trying to avoid being a resident in a rehabilitation or skilled nursing facility. But if I end up in one of those places, I’d want someone like Nurse Sammy taking care of me. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys honest yet heartwarming stories by medical professionals.
– Abbie Johnson Taylor – From Bedside to Heart
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The Ones Who Stayed With Me by Nurse Sammy is a powerful debut collection of true stories that leaves a lasting impression on both the heart and mind. These narratives are raw, honest, and emotionally intense—sometimes humorous, always compassionate—and reveal how grace can be found in the merciful field of nursing through care, service, and human connection.
Written in a memoir-style, journalistic format, Nurse Sammy chronicles eight years of her life working as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). She guides readers through her journey from the very beginning, presenting her experiences through a series of chronological snapshots. The book may be read cover to cover or opened at random, as each chapter stands on its own while contributing to a larger, meaningful whole. The stories explore life’s beginnings, endings, and everything in between, taking place in rehab centers, memory care halls, pediatric units, assisted living facilities, private homes, and wherever compassionate care is needed most.
Interwoven throughout the book are deeply personal reflections on heartache, surviving abuse, profound grief, a lost marriage, and ultimately, healing and rediscovered love. The opening chapter, This Job Will Break Your Heart, immediately grounds the reader in the emotional reality of nursing, while also emphasizing resilience, strength, and the wisdom gained through hardship.
Each chapter offers a gripping short story filled with Nurse Sammy’s experiences, emotions, and adventures in the field. Not every story has a happy ending—some have no ending at all—but each carries a moral and a life lesson, delivered with sincerity, empathy, and at times, gentle humor. For readers considering a career in caregiving or nursing, this book provides invaluable insight into both the emotional demands and the profound rewards of the profession.
Ultimately, The Ones Who Stayed With Me serves as a moving reminder that angels often appear in our darkest hours—sometimes wearing scrubs.
– Denise Aparo – Wrapping Up the WordCrafter “The Ones Who Stayed With Me” Book Blog Tour | Writing to be Read
Excerpts
“Better Than Textbooks”
“Is it B.M. or Chocolate Pudding”
“The Backbone of Nursing: The C.N.A.”
“The Year I Ate $2 Hotdogs”
About the Nurse Sammy
Nurse Sammy has spent her life walking the quiet edges of human suffering and human grace. Long before she ever wore scrubs, she learned how to read a room by the way someone breathed and how to steady a shaking hand. How to listen to the stories people only tell when they think it might be their last night to say them. Nursing wasn’t a career she chose; it was the language her heart was already speaking.
She has worked in places where life is beginning, and in places where life is ending; in rooms lit by hope, and in rooms where grief hangs heavy in the doorway. Rehab centers, memory care halls, pediatric units, assisted living, private homes, wherever someone needed gentleness, she went. She became the one who held vigil, the one who noticed the quiet details, the one who stayed.
Her personal life has carried its own ache, abuse survived, love lost, a marriage that bruised the soul, another built from healing, and a grief that still hums beneath her ribs. She writes from the tender, broken places, from the nights she rebuilt herself alone, from the mornings she rose anyway. Her words are shaped by both the wounds and the resilience that followed.
The Ones Who Stayed With Me is her first published work, a collection of truths disguised as stories, honoring the people who left fingerprints on her life in ways they never saw. Her writing is soft but unflinching, honest but merciful, threaded with the belief that even in darkness, someone is always holding a light.
Nurse Sammy lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she continues to care, to witness, to learn, and to turn the hardest parts of her journey into something that might help someone else breathe a little easier.
