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
Advocating for Public Health Begins with Knowing Your Neighbor
Like so many, I've felt somewhat helpless about all the threats to public health, and all the harm to vulnerable persons happening large scale. But this week, just in my neighborhood, I talked to my gardener who is not getting his fair share of wages from clients who keep saying, "I'll pay you later." Four … Continue reading Advocating for Public Health Begins with Knowing Your Neighbor
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
Nurse’s Week Tribute, May 2025
Nurses. More than just workhorses. We are the jubilant attendant at a baby’s first breath, the diligent guard of the unstable, the lonely attendant in postmortem care. We intuitively adapt to all types of people: the poor, the rich, the kind, the offensive, the grateful, the bitter, the safe, the terrifying, the sweet, the perverse, … Continue reading Nurse’s Week Tribute, May 2025
The Impossibility of Explaining a Day in the Life of PICU Nursing
I still don't know how to answer the question, "How is work?" I show up to the church courtyard on Sundays the same way anyone else does after a full week. Full of things on my mind, wanting connection, not always sure how to build bridges in brief five-minute conversations with people I love, not … Continue reading The Impossibility of Explaining a Day in the Life of PICU Nursing
A Note from/for the Weary Nurse, April 2025
It's been hard to write. But I put this down on another social media site, and thought I would share it here. We are not just nurse-robots that come to work. We are whole people, carrying other burdens on our shoulders from our personal lives, trying to show up the best we can for our … Continue reading A Note from/for the Weary Nurse, April 2025
Participate in the Survey for Grief Sensitive Healthcare Project
"What do I even do as the nurse with this devastated family right now?" When I was in nursing school, I didn't receive any formal training in how to sit with deeply grieving patients and families. I remember one brief exercise in empathy during an ethics class, where my classmates and I awkwardly role-played and … Continue reading Participate in the Survey for Grief Sensitive Healthcare Project
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
How My Patients and Families Help Me in Seasons of Suffering
When I and my husband had our back-to-back medical crises in 2023, me getting a breast cancer diagnosis followed by him getting a severe spinal cord injury resulting from the most random epidural abscess, I continued working through the bulk of that entire year (minus a week for post-op lumpectomy recovery, and the month I … Continue reading How My Patients and Families Help Me in Seasons of Suffering
A Story About Paying Attention
If I may be perfectly honest with you, I love lighter nursing shifts. Maybe because they are so few and far between in our PICU. Maybe because my to-do list with work and extracurricular nursing projects is never-ending, so I welcome any down time I have in my shifts to chip away at those, rather … Continue reading A Story About Paying Attention
The Heart of Nursing 