Related: caring, patients, spirituality

The patient who had just had a D&C after a miscarriage. The little girl dying after a failed liver transplant. The man headed to surgery for a colon resection to treat his cancer. The wife whose husband just died. The father who called to tell us his daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer.

These are all people who [...]

Related: Addiction, Anxiety, Balance, Caregivers, caring, Compassion Fatigue, Energy, Healthy Living, Motivation, Nurse Support, spirituality, Stress, Time

“Take care of yourself!” - Wouldn’t it be nice if your job description included this directive?

Unfortunately, nurses, who pour themselves into caring for others, are notorious for self-neglect. There’s no one around to make sure you make “you” a priority.

It’s a conundrum—you know you ought to take better care of yourself, but you don’t. Maybe you’re too tired to care. Maybe you don’t know [...]

Related: caring, spirituality

I was sitting with my daughter at Mayo Clinic, a large medical complex in Rochester, Minnesota, and considered to be one of the leading medical research institutions in North America. It's the place to be if you've exhausted all other options.

While waiting for our next appointment, we grabbed lunch at a cafe. A friend back home had told me that a mutual acquaintance would [...]

Related: caring, Death, Emotions, Feelings, patients, spirituality

When I was a little girl, I always was attracted to the "injury of the day" on the playground. The more traumatic, the better. It didn't have to be bloody, it just had to be dramatic. I was literally drawn to the banged-up child, crying on the blacktop. I couldn't stay away.

Even as a child, I had the heart of a [...]

Related: Healthy Living, spirituality, Stress

It comes in all shapes and sizes. It comes when things are going well or when we're already struggling. It comes when we're young and when we're old. It comes. Then it comes again.

Stress is universal, but have you noticed how differently we all handle it? Headaches, stomach aches, even humor. This is on my mind because of the [...]

Related: Addiction, Anxiety, Balance, Caregivers, Compassion Fatigue, Drug Addiction, Energy, Healthy Living, Mindset, Prioritizing, spirituality, Stress, Support

Extreme tiredness, negative feelings, weight gain, and marital problems.

One moment, Kayla thought she was depressed and that medication would help. Another moment, she thought her husband was the problem and that she should quit her marriage.

But Kayla wasn’t depressed. She suffered from something that affects many professional caregivers.

In recent years, Mary Jo Barrett, author and social worker from the Center for Contextual Change, in Elmhurst, [...]