I so loved this podcast conversation with Saba Fatima, a pediatrician I had the joy of getting to know through the Columbia University Narrative Medicine certification program. Our shared love of pediatrics, storytelling and preserving humanity in healthcare really bonded us as we dove into this conversation about professional grief, for her incredible new podcast, … Continue reading Podcast Episode with Muted in Medicine: Professional Grief
nursing
Technology and the Loss of Human Connection in Healthcare – Part One
As charge nurse on a busy day in our PICU, I was the hub of traffic control. Two of our patients were stable enough to transfer out of the ICU to the medical/surgical floors. One patient in the ED had caught a bad respiratory virus and was struggling to breathe. One of our physicians went … Continue reading Technology and the Loss of Human Connection in Healthcare – Part One
What is Professional Grief?
I had a wonderful podcast interview last week with a pediatrician who wanted to explore the topic of professional grief in healthcare, and that made me think it would be good to write a new post with some refreshed thoughts on the topic. What are we referring to when we talk about professional grief? There … Continue reading What is Professional Grief?
The Story of the One Loved
You were conceived, and your mother loved you immediately with her whole heart. In your earliest days, your hair and your face would already be programmed to take on much of your mother’s likeness. But something in your nascent genetics would also go quietly awry, taking you and your mom on a trajectory that some … Continue reading The Story of the One Loved
What I Never Would’ve Gained if not for Nursing
On this eve of the start to Nurses’ Week, I find myself reflecting on how indescribably unique and rich and crazy this profession is. I am forever changed because of my experiences as a nurse, and I am so thankful for all of it. Through nursing, I have had the opportunities: To watch a victim … Continue reading What I Never Would’ve Gained if not for Nursing
The Privilege of Entering into Patient Stories
We’d never talked. She only knew I was one of the other nurses in the ICU. I knew she was the mom of the kid everyone was concerned about. She was leaning on a countertop, motionless and alone, while the whole medical team was in motion in her child’s room. I approached her, and lightly … Continue reading The Privilege of Entering into Patient Stories
The Tensions We Constantly Navigate as Healthcare Workers
My therapist recently noted how much inner work and wrestling I must be constantly doing as a nurse, without being fully aware of what is rumbling underneath the surface. Today I find myself feeling really tender, and I’ve got a feeling it’s because of the recent accumulation of patient stories that have gone unpacked, evoking … Continue reading The Tensions We Constantly Navigate as Healthcare Workers
FREE 7-Day E-Devotional: Gritty Gospel-Based Reflections for Nurses in the Trenches
As a Christian pediatric ICU nurse who has seen all the terrible things, I can’t stomach platitudes, including Christian platitudes. Those who have followed my writing here know that I have spent a lot of time wrestling with questions like "Where is God in the PICU - cases of injustice" and issues such as the … Continue reading FREE 7-Day E-Devotional: Gritty Gospel-Based Reflections for Nurses in the Trenches
A Beautiful Feel-Good Story about a Former Patient
*This incredible story is shared with full consent from my former patient. The story that brought him into our ICU was the kind of story that hits all of us peds ICU nurses in a particularly painful way. Previously healthy, just doing clap push-ups at home when whatever it was in his spine went awry. … Continue reading A Beautiful Feel-Good Story about a Former Patient
Is Compartmentalization the Best Way to Manage our Emotions as Nurses?
I hear so many people say, "I don't know how you do your job as a pediatric ICU nurse." The advice I hear from so many around me about how to last for the long haul in this profession usually runs along the following lines: "Leave work at work." "When you clock out, you have … Continue reading Is Compartmentalization the Best Way to Manage our Emotions as Nurses?
The Heart of Nursing 