Advent is for those who grieve, in a culture obsessed with happiness at all costs, especially during the Western version of the Christmas season. Advent is for nurses like me and my colleagues who said one final goodbye this past weekend to a patient who’d become the sweetheart of our unit, a joyful light … Continue reading Advent is for Those who Grieve
Christian nursing
From PICU Nurse to Foster Camp Nurse: A Reflection
This summer, I had the unique experience of switching my nurse hat from PICU nurse to volunteer camp nurse for a 5-day sleepaway camp for foster kids through my church and Royal Family Kids Camp. For 5 days, 42 volunteers staffed a camp for 28 foster kids, ages 6-12, to give them a week where … Continue reading From PICU Nurse to Foster Camp Nurse: A Reflection
No Ordinary Sunday
The readjusting back and forth between intensely challenging nursing shifts and everyday normal life is a real thing to navigate. It still catches me by surprise every time, how hard it really is. I am in the thick of a full 12+ hours of trying to manage chaos and logistics in a unit full … Continue reading No Ordinary Sunday
On Being a Christian Mother and a Pediatric ICU Nurse
There may be no greater revealers of my deepest wrestling with my humanity than the roles of both a mother and a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurse. Everyone says becoming a parent changes you, and it does, in countless indescribable ways. Every healthcare professional says being close to sickness and death changes you, and … Continue reading On Being a Christian Mother and a Pediatric ICU Nurse
The Inner Stretch of Nursing: Guest Post for American Journal of Nursing
Nursing has a way of challenging - and sometimes flat out messing with - your perspective on life. So many Sundays, I've gone to church and started singing about truths I know to be foundational - God is good, mercy and hope are real, comfort is near. I have seen and experienced all of these … Continue reading The Inner Stretch of Nursing: Guest Post for American Journal of Nursing
The Messy Untangling: On Sorting Through the Hard Feelings after a Rough Shift
Today, I’m feeling it. The untangling after a particularly intense shift on all levels. I walked into a shift with a family whose child had taken a big turn for the worse and they had no guarantees that moving forward with certain procedures and therapies would turn things around for the better. We could only … Continue reading The Messy Untangling: On Sorting Through the Hard Feelings after a Rough Shift
When Wine and Pedicures Aren’t Enough: Deeper Level Coping as a Christian Nurse
Recently, I have been meeting some soon-to-be-brand-new nurses who have wanted to hear from me about how I cope with the hardest things I see as a nurse. It is a deep and necessary question every nurse has to work through if you want to truly open your heart to the reality of others’ suffering … Continue reading When Wine and Pedicures Aren’t Enough: Deeper Level Coping as a Christian Nurse
