Healthcare workers, along with patients, often pay a heavy price for broken healthcare systems.

Facing patient violence, short staffing, lack of resources, and ineffective administrative policies, healthcare workers can be put in danger, leaving them feeling highly stressed, emotionally exhausted, burned out, and wondering how they will survive, which ultimately harms their patients. Allen Long worked as a nurse for nearly a decade and survived in a toxic inner-city hospital, persevering against extreme tolls on his body, soul, and marriage. In an entertaining and enlightening way, Praying for Restraint: A Hospital Nurse's Tale of Survival offers camaraderie, hope, and wisdom for everyone involved in the healthcare field, from the CEO to the nurses down to who is supposed to benefit from their work: patients.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Allen Long was born in New York City and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of Less than Human: A Memoir (Black Rose, 2016) and two dozen short stories and memoirs appearing in literary magazines. Allen holds a BA in journalism from Virginia Tech, an MA in fiction writing from Hollins University, and an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Arizona. An assistant editor at Narrative Magazine since 2005, Allen lives with his wife in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he spent nearly a decade working as a nurse in two hospitals and other healthcare settings.