Television executives have been aware of one truth since the early days of the medium: Hospital shows make for great drama. However, I have to say there is a reason that Call the Midwife is a successful series, and Yes Sister, No Sister, despite being about the same subject and set in the same time period, hasn't (yet) been optioned. Jennifer Worth's books display a compassion in interest in the people around her, both nuns and patients, while Jennifer Craig's writing reveals that she is really only interested in nursing as a source of personal achievement. Jennifer Worth learns from both her patients and her teachers, while Jennifer Craig displays nothing but resentment toward her superiors and very little interest in her patients, save one who gushes about what a wonderful nurse she (Craig) is. At one point, Craig asks about a patient, a young girl injured in an IRA bombing, and is told that she survived surgery and that Craig can go visit her, if she likes -- and then she utterly fails to follow up on it, instead focusing on the camaraderie among the ER staff instead of the suffering of the victims. In a few instances, she hints at hidden depths in a few of her nemeses but neglects to uncover it.
In searching for an image of the cover to link, I found a review of the book on another blog which states that "Craig is clearly the hero of her own story." I think this is where this memoir suffers in comparison to Worth's: Jennifer Worth focused on giving a voice to those around her, whether nuns or patients, and comes off as kinder and more human. Craig, on the other hand, glories in being singled out as the only one invited to the wedding of a fellow nurse who comes off as a most insufferable snob. Worth grows and changes as she questions her own preconceptions; Craig doesn't seem to have questioned how right she is since 1954. While the stories she tells are interesting, I'd much rather have Jenny Lee at my bedside if I were ill.
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