Product Description

It’s 1959 when nineteen-year-old Donna Yates enters a grueling three-year training program at Calgary’s Holy Cross Hospital Nursing School. Her illusions about the divinity of nuns and nurses take a serious beating when she comes face-to-face with the shocking realities of hospital life and the indomitable Sister Leclerc. When physical and emotional strain of her first encounters with illness and death threaten to overwhelm her, Yates discovers undreamed of reserves of strength. Her newly emerging strength gets an added workout when rioting mental patients threaten to turn a picnic into an orgy, and she discovers a fine line separates sanity from madness and comedy from tragedy. Under strict rules and exacting standards of the French-speaking Grey Nuns from Montreal, Yates learns the true meaning of "vocation." Set against the sprawling beauty of western Canada, Yes, Sister – Memoir of a Young Nurse, is an intensely personal memoir that has a distinct subtext that cuts across gender, religion and politics. With the pace and texture of a novel, it tells the story of what goes into the making of a good nurse.

"Holy Cross did more than turn out good nurses…it changed the lives of women who trained there."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2594909 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 247 pages

Review
A fascinating story meticulously written, often graphic, it can be an important contributor to our country's debate on healthcare -- Editor, Montreal Business Magazine, October, 2005

The reader (is) totally enclosed in the small world of a teaching hospital for three fascinating years. -- Montreal Review of Books, November, 2005

This highly readable, sometimes graphic memoir is heart wrenching and hilarious, filled with medical drama and timeless insights. -- Past President, Editorial, Reader's Digest Canada Ltd, October, 2005

YatesAdelman restores reader’s faith in a profession that has been reputed to lack sensitivity and revives confidence in medical personnel. -- Canadian Writers' Society, October, 2005

About the Author
Donna Yates-Adelman was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A graduate of Calgary’s Holy Cross Hospital in 1962, Yatesw-Adelman worked for 26 years, primarily in surgical intensive care and coronary intensive care in hospitals in Calgary, Montreal and San Francisco. She was head nurse in surgical intensive care at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital before opening her own medical clinic, Doctors’ Replacement Medical Clinic, which she owned and operated for 12 years.

Yates-Adelman's articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail, medical journals and newsletters.

Yates-Adelman has written a screen play loosely based on her memoirs and is presently working on a novel. She lives in Montreal

Customer Reviews

Great memories moved me to tears
I graduated from Holy Cross School of Nursing a few years before the author.
I found out about this book at our 50th class reunion last week. I borrowed a classmate's copy and
laughed and cried. It was like reliving my own experience.

Sr. LeClerc may have been "hard" on us, but we have tried to live up to the potential
she saw in us and we should all thank her.
I couldn't wait to get back to the States from Calgary and log on to Amazon to buy my own copy.

Thanks Donna for a wonderful trip down memory lane... but I'm sure any nurse could identify
with the story, and it's a great book for the lay reader to understand what goes into the making of a nurse!

This is a Must Read for Everyone Who Cares About People
Yes, Sister is a must read for everyone who cares about people. The emotions involved in the situations encountered by this young nurse are communicated so well that I was often in tears while ready this book. I felt her joys, her disappointments and her pain. Ms. Yates-Adelman sure knows how to tell a story that leaves one feeling like she's been by the nurse's side throughout. Thank you Ms. Yates-Adelman wherever you are!!!