A Nurse Reflects On The Privilege Of Caring For Dying Patients
- Amanda Bridges
- October 15, 2015
- Nurses
“Palliative care nurse Theresa Brown is healthy, and so are her loved ones, and yet, she feels keenly connected to death. “I have a deep awareness after working in oncology that fortunes can change on a dime,” she tellsFresh Air’s Terry Gross. ‘Enjoy the good when you have it, because that really is a blessing.’
Brown is the author of The Shift, which follows four patients during the course of a 12-hour shift in a hospital cancer ward. A former oncology nurse, Brown now provides patients with in-home, end-of-life care.
Talking — and listening — are both important parts of her job as a palliative care nurse. This is especially true on the night shift. ‘Night and waking up in the night can bring a clarity,’ she says. ‘It can be a clarity of being able to face your fears, it can be a clarity of being overwhelmed by your fears, and either way, I feel like it’s really a privilege to be there for people.’
Sometimes Brown finds herself bridging the gap between patients who know they are dying and family members who are still expecting a cure. ‘There can be a lot of secrets kept and silences. … One thing that palliative care can be really good at is trying to sit with families and have those conversations,’ she says.
While some might see her job as depressing, Brown says that being with people who are dying is a profound experience. ‘When you’re with people who die … and being in their homes and seeing their families, it’s incredible the love that people evoke. And it makes me realize this is why we’re here; this is what we do; this is what we give to each other.'”
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