Title: The comfort garden
Description: The Comfort Garden is Laurie Barkin's account of the five years she worked as a psychiatric nurse on the surgical/trauma unit at San Francisco General Hospital. Told against the backdrop of patients who survived motor vehicle accidents, falls, fires, fists, bullets, and knives, The Comfort Garden is a metaphor for the emotional support caregivers need. The story illuminates the issues of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma that may develop in caregivers when exposure to tragedy becomes routine.

The Comfort Garden will appeal to health care professionals, firefighters, police, war veterans, social workers, journalists, students, and anyone whose life is touched by trauma.
Subjects: Psychic trauma, Psychiatric Nursing, Psychology, Nurse-Patient Relations, Crisis intervention (Mental health services), Trauma Centers, Methods, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Treatment, Professional Burnout, Psychiatric nursing, Psychotherapy, Traumatology, Crisis Intervention, Psychiatric nurses, Biography, Personal Narratives