Nursing Book Club
The Women by Kristin Hannah
A historical novel about American nurses serving during the Vietnam War
The title of Kristin Hannah’s latest historical fiction novel, The Women, refers to the roughly 7,000 U.S. military nurses who served on active duty during the Vietnam War. The story follows the career of Frankie McGrath, a young socialite from California who decides to join the Army Nurse Corps after the death of her older brother, a young Army officer.
While the protagonist’s choice is a radical one for a young woman of her time — her parents disapprove so strongly that they try to hide Frankie’s service from their friends — it was not completely uncommon. Patriotic young women who wanted to serve their county sometimes followed the model of their fathers, brothers, or boyfriends, even enlisting right out of nursing school.
Arriving In Country
The Women focuses on Frankie‘s wartime experience, beginning with her arrival in a hot, humid war zone wearing stockings, a heavy uniform, and a battle helmet. Inexperienced and inadequately trained, she must learn to treat horrific wounds and provide emotional support for young soldiers dying far from their families and loved ones.
Hannah vividly depicts the horrors of war and the protagonist’s loneliness and grief. We watch Frankie grow up the hard way, gaining confidence in her new role through gruesome experience. We begin to realize how the consequences of these brief years will reverberate through the rest of the character’s life.
A Harsh Homecoming
Returning to the U.S. was not easy for nurse veterans. Combat nurses like Frankie returned to work with a new set of advanced skills that the civilian nursing scope of practice did not allow them to utilize.
Many were consequently bored, or felt isolated from their nursing colleagues at stateside hospitals who had no concept of what they had been through.
Much like soldiers returning from the Vietnam War, military nurses often found themselves coming back to a country that had changed radically. Vietnam was an unpopular war at home, sparking widespread protests and souring the nation’s regard for the military.
The novel shows how Frankie takes charge of her life at home after two years of experiences most of her friends can’t even imagine. Ultimately, it’s the commitment of her fellow Army nurses to one another after their return to civilian life that helps soften the blows of disappointment, lost loves, and mental health issues that war has left them with.
Although I’m old enough to remember the Vietnam War, the peace marches, and the fall of Saigon from watching them in real time on the nightly news, The Women puts an edgy, modern spin on all of it that only a gifted author can manage.
It’s well worth a read — if only to pat yourself on the back once again for being part of the proud community of nurses.
The Women by Kristin Hannah (MacMillan, 2024)
CHRISTINE CONTILLO, RN, BSN, PHN, is a public health nurse with more than 40 years of experience, ranging from infants to geriatrics.
In this Article: Historical Nurses, Nurses at War, Vietnam War
