Vital Signs: Called to Serve: 1

In 1977, Diane Hartwell is eight months into nursing and still startled when anyone calls her "the nurse."At County General, she learns quickly that skill is only part of the job. Patients deteriorate without warning. Physicians protect their authority. Exhausted staff miss what matters. And sometimes Diane knows something is wrong before there is any clinical evidence to explain why.Guided by seasoned nurses, challenged by medicine's rigid hierarchy, and sustained by an unexpected friendship, Diane begins to trust the instincts she was taught to question.As new technology changes the way nurses care for patients, Diane faces a choice: remain where she is comfortable, or step toward a life larger than the one she already knows.Vital Signs: Called to Serve is the first novel in the Vital Signs series-a sweeping story of nursing, intuition, service, and the thresholds that shape a lifetime.