How do you know if you’ve crossed the line from trying to be wholehearted and deeply empathetic, to being co-dependent? This was a question that came up in a couple of conversations at the recent (and incredible!) End Well conference. I’ve thought about it quite a bit over the years, as there is without doubt … Continue reading Wholehearted Nursing vs Codependency
Podcast Episode: A Year of Shocking Diagnoses
What is it like to be an average family - parents and two kids - in which your year begins with the mom receiving a cancer diagnosis, and then the dad suffers a severe spinal cord injury just as the mom moves into remission and preventative hormone therapy? This was our year. For the first … Continue reading Podcast Episode: A Year of Shocking Diagnoses
A Second Medical Crisis in One Year: My Husband’s Story
It was a simple outpatient procedure on Monday, July 24, to assess some airway and swallowing issues. Without going into excessive detail, the procedure seemed straightforward and my husband came home the same day with just the expected post-op soreness. But a couple of days after the procedure, his symptoms morphed from soreness in his … Continue reading A Second Medical Crisis in One Year: My Husband’s Story
Brief thoughts on walking with those who grieve and suffer
If someone comes to you carrying 200 pounds and says, "I've been carrying a heavy load for a while and I hurt," don't say, "At least you're not carrying 300 pounds!" or "Look on the bright side!" or "I don't know how you do it." Acknowledge the weight. Help carry some. Facilitate their rest.
Part Three of Three: Go On Living Together
This is the third post in a three-part series I wrote for my church blog about my spiritual wrestlings as I went through my cancer journey. Who knew that this would then be so pertinent in the second half of this year as my husband now recovers from his spinal cord injury. "Life remains beautiful … Continue reading Part Three of Three: Go On Living Together
Part Two of Three-Part Series: Reckoning with Illness and Death
"In the first post of this series [for my church blog], I shared the story about how I received a breast cancer diagnosis just a few minutes before my friend Susan announced her benign results from her own recent biopsy. I confronted the reality that sometimes, God says no to our prayers for things to … Continue reading Part Two of Three-Part Series: Reckoning with Illness and Death
Part One of Three: Personal Spiritual Wrestlings as a Cancer Patient
I have wrestled with spiritual questions a good deal as the nurse bearing witness to my patients' stories over the years. In that, I have often wondered about the intricacies of how my patients' families process their experience of significant illness in a loved one. This year, with my own breast cancer diagnosis, I learned … Continue reading Part One of Three: Personal Spiritual Wrestlings as a Cancer Patient
The Art of Healthcare
(An earlier version of this article was recently printed in our PICU's newsletter.) There is a long list of technology, procedures and interventions to learn about in order to care for patients in the PICU. We can’t avoid marrying so much of our care for the patient with our management of all the technology and … Continue reading The Art of Healthcare
Returning to Bedside Nursing after My Own Cancer Journey
As described in previous posts, the first half of this year took me sideways on a cancer journey that I never anticipated. I had my lumpectomy in January, which was followed by a complication with a massive hematoma at the surgical site that had me swollen, in pain, and oozing old blood from my incision … Continue reading Returning to Bedside Nursing after My Own Cancer Journey
Latest Blog Post for American Journal of Nursing: Honoring the Personhood of Brain-Dead Patients
My latest blog post for American Journal of Nursing treads carefully into the art of caring for pediatric patients who have been pronounced brain-dead. These are some of the most sensitive spaces to inhabit as a nurse, some of the trickiest conversations to navigate with the parents and other loved ones struggling deeply with the … Continue reading Latest Blog Post for American Journal of Nursing: Honoring the Personhood of Brain-Dead Patients
The Heart of Nursing 