“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
professionalism
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
When Empathy and Desire to Help Others are not Enough to Fuel Nursing
In a recent harrowing shift and the subsequent “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck” day after, I found myself wondering what was really behind some feelings in me that we generally label “burnout.” Did I just not care enough about my patient and her family to consider all the hard work more … Continue reading When Empathy and Desire to Help Others are not Enough to Fuel Nursing
Walking Closely with Families: A Letter
A letter to my long time patient’s mom — You were trapped in the fishbowl of our ICU. You went from a numb stare to near catatonic with grief to terse and closed in to opening your door a crack to pouring your heart out, telling me stories, speaking of fears and hopes and uncertainties … Continue reading Walking Closely with Families: A Letter
The Year I Almost Walked Out on the Job
I would venture to say that two attributes we all have in common in the pediatric ICU (and nursing in general) are our affinity to be problem-solvers in tough situations, and to be comforters to the suffering. These attributes are what make us all so good at our jobs. They likely also exacerbate our distress … Continue reading The Year I Almost Walked Out on the Job
The Living Components of the Healthcare System
*This post is adapted from an article I wrote for our pediatric ICU's quarterly newsletter. Being a healthcare worker involves increasingly more than caring for the physical patients and their parents. It also involves giving attention to the system as a ‘patient’ of sorts, with its own temperament, ailings and needs. What’s curious is that … Continue reading The Living Components of the Healthcare System
I Don’t Know How You Do Your Job
After some particularly meaningful patient care experiences in the last few weeks, I've found my mind coming back to the comment we PICU staff often hear from the general public, "I don't know how you do your job." There are endless strings we could pull on, in unpacking that comment and our responses, but here … Continue reading I Don’t Know How You Do Your Job
A Different Kind of Expertise for a Different Kind of Healing
The baby came to us from another hospital with multi-layered complications since her premature birth. Her dad was absent, and her mom had two and a half strikes working against her in life. The other hospital had reached its limit in what they could do for the baby, so they sent the baby to us. … Continue reading A Different Kind of Expertise for a Different Kind of Healing
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 Heart of Nursing 