Critical Care Reflection

            The book Critical Care by Theresa Brown is an amazing reflection on the life of a nurse. No matter if you’re a nurse or working in the health care system this is a great read. Her passion for providing the best care for her patients is inspiring. Brown views her patients as real people, not just a science experiment. Theresa’s heart for providing care is so big that she provides care for the patient as a whole, not just their needs.

My Impression on a Patient’s Death 

            Death is natural to life and is sadly a common occurrence in the medical field. In this book, the middle-aged women who had lung cancer left an impression on me. She was Theresa’s first Condition A. From one moment she was fine, to the next she was violently spitting up blood. When the condition team got there, they did everything they possibly could to try and save her, but she couldn’t be saved. I was surprised that even though she was already dead they still had to legally do everything they could to save her. I understand the legality and ethics about it, but she wasn’t going to pull through because chunks of tissue were leaving her body and she didn’t have a pulse. I will always hurt for a patient’s death, but the most important thing is that you can try, and Theresa emphasizes that too. Doing the best you can for your patients while they’re suffering and still alive is extremely important, that way no matter the outcome you know you did everything you could to make their life count.

Questioning Theresa’s actions

            Throughout the book, Theresa owns up to her actions and is critical of herself but in this case she wasn’t. Another Condition A patient, Robert, passed away in the hallway of radiation. Theresa was designated to tell Robert’s wife he had passed even though she had never communicated a patient death before. In that moment, I would have gone to another nurse on the floor and asked them how they would handle the situation. I would want to go into the situation prepared so I could communicate the truth. Theresa instead was beating around the bush and even says to herself “I fought an incredible temptation to lie” (Brown 92). The whole time Marianne wasn’t getting the answer that she deserved to get because of Theresa’s lack of clear communication. I feel that if Theresa had done what she was supposed to do, even though it was her first time, the wife would’ve understood what was needed for her husband and gotten the answer she initially deserved.

A meaningful passage

            Throughout this book I found myself intrigued and moved by the words and actions of Theresa. There was one passage that emotionally touched my heart:

            “At some point, though, sooner than any of us would wish, our artistic mettle will be tested…Colors and brush ends will fly, and metal will strike stone…in the end the product will not resemble the Mona Lisa or Rodin’s The Thinker, but a real person in less distress, physical or emotional, than she was before the nurse came into the room. My masterpieces are all internal: ease given to a suffering heart” (Brown 25-26).

            In this passage, Theresa is trying everything she can to help care for her patients even though it may not be pretty. She hopes that after her job is done the patient is more at ease. The root of her job is not only on the surface, it’s also what is on the inside. To me that message is so powerful, and I want to carry that message with me into my future nursing career.

Loving and Hating a Career in Nursing

            Theresa, early in the book talks about a poem written by Frank Bidart. The poem on page ten states: “I hate and love. Ignorant fish, who even wants to fly while writhing.” How I’d react to the idea of loving and hating a career in nursing is similar to how Theresa does. I will love caring for a patient as a whole and being able to make a difference in their stay and maybe their life, but I will hate seeing time after time a patient suffering even though I’m doing everything I can to help. The aspects of the nursing profession that I see on both sides is that to heal there may still be the consequence of pain. As a future nurse my heart will feel that pain and healing.

Conclusion

            Theresa Brown has written a book that excites me for my future and for my passion. To reflect on this book was exciting because I could share my feelings towards this career as well as my excitement. Being able to read a book so open and detailed about a “critical nurse” was inspiring. Theresa truly has a heart for nursing.