I didn’t expect so much emotion to surface while preparing for this upcoming presentation. I keep weeping through my run-throughs because I can still barely believe this all happened, and it's so hard to give words to the real things. I’m revisiting our year of health crises (which, let’s be honest, continues to reverberate into … Continue reading UCLA AACN Presentation – The Patient Perspective: The View from the Other Side of the Bed
The Practice of Personal Retreats for Endurance in Nursing
When I talk with nurses about the experience of professional grief, I often use the analogy of freight trucks that are built to carry particularly heavy loads. As tough and admirable as they are for their strength, they still each ultimately have a weight limit that needs to be heeded, if the trucks are going … Continue reading The Practice of Personal Retreats for Endurance in Nursing
Imagining a World Without Nurses
When I think of a world without nurses, I think of a young child who has spent *years* in our unit, parents not yet able to bring them home because of such complex medical needs, who wouldn't have the everyday care and companionship they get from the around-the-clock nurses who know them now so well. … Continue reading Imagining a World Without Nurses
Captain of the Ship: On Being PICU Charge Nurse in a Stormy Season
I sat at the helm in a swirl of chaos captain of the ship for the day coming dangerously close to bringing too much weight on board * lives on the verge of going under we were trying our best to bring them to shore to steadier ground to brighter days * and to keep … Continue reading Captain of the Ship: On Being PICU Charge Nurse in a Stormy Season
Sharing in the Loneliness of Extraordinary Suffering: A Nurse’s Quiet Burden
We had all just started our shift when the code bells alarmed. We ran to the room, and someone was already performing CPR. After several rounds, our Attending Physician sadly announced the time of death and we braced ourselves for the mom's agonizing screams. Our chaplain, social worker, respiratory therapist, care partners, and physician colleagues … Continue reading Sharing in the Loneliness of Extraordinary Suffering: A Nurse’s Quiet Burden
From a Fellow ICU Nurse: Honoring Alex Pretti
Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse, just like me. We ICU nurses look at life and all its darkest shadows with eyes wide open, and close up, bearing regular, intimate witness to the multitude of tragedies that befall people. We go to them, think about them, and we think about our lives and our role … Continue reading From a Fellow ICU Nurse: Honoring Alex Pretti
Healthcare Workers are from Mars, Patients and Families are from Venus
Earlier this week, a panel of colleagues at my hospital participated in an Ethics Grand Rounds where they discussed the topic, "When Parents Question Our Expertise: Trust Alliance, and Boundaries in Pediatric Care." As you can imagine, the conversation was full of stories about tensions with patients' family members, personal/shared struggles when we feel fractures … Continue reading Healthcare Workers are from Mars, Patients and Families are from Venus
The Ethical Use of our Therapeutic Connections with Patients’ Families
“What would you do, doctor?” The family had been explicit in wanting straightforward communication about their child, whose neurological disease had progressed to the point where she was continually seizing, despite every medication the physicians had tried. The seizures were in turn damaging her brain, such that she was minimally responsive to stimuli and was … Continue reading The Ethical Use of our Therapeutic Connections with Patients’ Families
Special Podcast Episode with Medicinal Media and Lisa Keefauver: The Power of Narrative Therapy to Reframe and Rewrite our Stories
Earlier this year, I had an opportunity to participate in one of the most meaningful conversations to date about what it is like to be professional caregivers who regularly care for people at the end of life. What are the stories we absorb from our healthcare cultures, the stories we tell ourselves as we process, … Continue reading Special Podcast Episode with Medicinal Media and Lisa Keefauver: The Power of Narrative Therapy to Reframe and Rewrite our Stories
Fifteen Years as a PICU Nurse: When the Romance Fades
I hit my 15 year anniversary as a PICU nurse over the weekend. This was a few days after we said goodbye to some of our most beloved senior nurses in our unit, after their positions were eliminated at the hospital due to all the budgeting constraints from nationwide political pressures. I've found myself reflecting … Continue reading Fifteen Years as a PICU Nurse: When the Romance Fades
The Heart of Nursing 