I am beyond thrilled to be speaking at the End Well Symposium in Los Angeles this November. I’m so grateful for their focus on pediatrics this year. It is a population that evokes particularly tender emotions when we talk about end of life, because goodness, they're only just getting started. It is a tremendous privilege to be … Continue reading Join Me at the End Well Symposium this November!
death and dying
Finding the Story Amidst Technicalities
Today I went for a CT scan to prepare for upcoming radiation as part of my breast cancer journey. I've been posting some reflections about my experiences for friends in my personal social media accounts, but I will share one here because it pertains to the way we can go about the technicalities of our … Continue reading Finding the Story Amidst Technicalities
An ICU Nurse’s Complicated Relationship with the Turn of the New Year
I wrote a post around Thanksgiving about the strange chasm between holiday bliss and hospital grief. After that post, our unit entered into a stormy December when we saw one tiny human go from just so new to the world, to an everything-altering diagnosis, to sick but cute and alert, to crashing onto ECMO and … Continue reading An ICU Nurse’s Complicated Relationship with the Turn of the New Year
PICU Nursing, Dec 2022: A Day in the Life
I was supposed to be charge nurse yesterday. But because staffing remained incredibly tight, and we had some extraordinarily sick patients in our unit right now (four on CVVH, a nurse-driven specialized form of slow dialysis; and one little baby on ECMO, the ultimate heart-lung machine for the sickest of patients), one of our wonderfully … Continue reading PICU Nursing, Dec 2022: A Day in the Life
Podcast Episode for Grief is a Sneaky B!tch: Human, Not Superhero
The superhero narrative has been and continues to be prevalent when referring to healthcare workers, and not for terrible reasons per se. Healthcare workers are some of the toughest people I know. I have deep respect for each one of my colleagues, for their fortitude and capacity to bear extraordinary burdens, experiences and responsibilities on … Continue reading Podcast Episode for Grief is a Sneaky B!tch: Human, Not Superhero
Podcast Episode about PICU Nursing with “The Silent Why” is Now Live!
I am overjoyed to finally be able to share this podcast episode with the world. Claire and Chris Sandys reached out to me all the way from England earlier this year to invite me to record a conversation with them, where we go in deep about my work as a pediatric ICU nurse. They are … Continue reading Podcast Episode about PICU Nursing with “The Silent Why” is Now Live!
The Indescribable Value of Having Our Stories be Heard
I have two big events coming up that feel huge to me because at the core of them is the rare, underestimated, healing opportunity for our stories as nurses to be brought forth from the depths of where we tend to bury them, and be heard. Tomorrow, I’ll have the privilege of being interviewed for … Continue reading The Indescribable Value of Having Our Stories be Heard
Published piece in “Months to Years”: A Story of a Good Mom
Months to Years is a beautiful online literary journal, filled with pieces that courageously and tenderly address the issues of mortality and terminal illness. My piece, "A Story of a Good Mom," is now live in their current Summer 2022 issue. Working in pediatric ICU nursing as a mother myself to school-aged children, the parents' … Continue reading Published piece in “Months to Years”: A Story of a Good Mom
a goodbye poem, to the one we will never forget.
You came with a list of diagnoses that came with a list of stipulations that came with a list of medications that came with a list of how to give them for this stipulation or that one of the list of diagnoses. You came with a knack for Legos and a passion for online gaming … Continue reading a goodbye poem, to the one we will never forget.
Ode to Fellow Nurses
We've had a number of very sad and sobering deaths in our pediatric ICU as of late. Some were kids who were only just recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, who decompensated more quickly than anyone was prepared for. Some were kids who had been dealing with a chronic illness for years and were in … Continue reading Ode to Fellow Nurses
The Heart of Nursing 