A veteran ICU nurse and a rising nurse trace a profession in crisis from SARS to COVID-19 and beyond.
“An unflinching look at the work that keeps our health-care system alive – the grit, the grace, the expertise, the vigilance, and the quiet acts of kindness that rarely make the headlines. This book does more than share stories; it honours a profession that holds our lives in its hands. Riveting, fearless, and profoundly human.” – Dr. Doris Grinspun, RN, BScN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), Dr(hc), DHC, DHC, FAAN, FCAN, O.ONT., Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO)
Toronto, ON — January 14, 2026 — As one generation of nurses nears the end of a long and demanding career, another prepares to step into crisis. The Handover: A Nurse’s Last Shift (University of Toronto Press, January 13, 2026, $34.95) captures a profession at its breaking point through an intimate exchange between a veteran ICU nurse and a student just beginning her career.
The book opens in January 2020 at a national nursing student convention, where Shalof—approaching the end of a nearly three-decade ICU career—delivers a keynote to hundreds of nursing students. Among them is Lisa Mochrie, a driven student about to enter the profession. Weeks later, COVID-19 erupts, transforming that symbolic moment into a real and urgent handover.
Structured around conversations and meetings between Shalof and Mochrie, The Handover traces Mochrie’s evolution from nursing student to emerging leader, while Shalof reflects on what has changed in nursing—and what must endure. Their dialogue spans the pandemic years to the present day, offering a rare, ground-level view of nursing across generations. “Don’t read this book if you prefer a sanitized or sentimental depiction of nurses or hospital life,” Shalof writes (p. 6).
Through vivid bedside stories and candid exchanges, Shalof and Mochrie reveal what nursing actually entails: high-stakes decision-making in ICU, neurosurgery, HIV care, long-term care, and vaccine clinics; the emotional and physical toll of COVID-19, from PPE shortages and visitor bans to moral distress; a workplace culture marked by both mentorship and bullying; and systemic failures that continue to drive nurses out of the profession.
Together, Shalof and Mochrie dismantle sentimental stereotypes and present nursing as skilled, demanding, and profoundly human work. Their voices ground the book in the present and future of nursing, illuminating the pressures in nursing to absorb extraordinary responsibility while navigating burnout, identity, and leadership.
Accessible to general readers and invaluable to students, educators, and health-system leaders, The Handover is both a portrait of a profession under strain and a call to take nursing seriously—before the next generation decides the cost of staying is too high.
The Handover: A Nurse’s Last Shift is available for purchase at utpublishing.com and major book retailers.