The Misconceptions of Nursing With Theresa Brown

Misconceptions of nursing – what are they? How can we help highlight these issues? Nursing is a profession that isn’t for everyone. But some excel greatly in this career.

And while nursing is a remarkable career that provides essential services, there are still misconceptions about it. What are the misconceptions about nursing? How can we uplift nurses?

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Theresa Brown. Theresa Brown is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Shift.

She earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago and taught English before flipping her career into nursing. She now holds lectures on issues related to nursing, healthcare, and the end of life. 

Her new book titled Healing is out now, where she tells a powerful story about navigating healthcare after a breast cancer diagnosis. 

QUESTIONS FOR GUESTS:

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We go off-topic all the time so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas please let us know. Looking forward to our conversation!

1. What made you shift focus from academia to pursue a career in nursing? What made you choose oncology, palliative, and hospice? 
2. During your first year as an oncology nurse, you experienced a sudden death of a patient. How did that make you feel, and how did you process those emotions?
3. Your book Critical Care is an account of your first year as a nurse. What was your biggest take away, and how were you able to deal with the emotions and workload of a new nurse?
4. How different was the reality of nursing compared to your expectations going in? 
   1. What do you think are the most common misconceptions about nursing?
   2. What are the struggles you’ve noticed nurses face?
5. Going from nurse to patient, how was it navigating through a healthcare system that you’ve worked in?
   1. What were your first thoughts when you were diagnosed with cancer?
   2. How were you treated? Were physicians and other medical staff transparent and timely? Did you feel that you were getting the appropriate “help’?
   3. Do you feel that you were left in the dark or weren’t given the full picture of your situation?
6. Being both a patient and a nurse, what would you like to change in healthcare or in nursing? Did healthcare fail you?

ENDING QUESTIONS:

Before we end the show we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody, dead or alive, who would it be & why? 

You can check out Theresa’s book Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient at https://www.theresabrownrn.com/. Or stay in touch with her through Twitter @TheresaBrown for more information.

To understand more about the misconceptions about nursing, check out the full episode here 👇

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 Intro
01:42 What made you shift focus from academia to pursue a career in nursing?
04:55 What made you choose oncology, palliative care, and hospice?
07:34 The biggest takeaway as an oncology nurse
11:26 The struggles of nursing school
14:25 Tips for dealing with emotions after a patient’s death
23:05 Being a cancer patient
28:12 What patients really need from nurses
32:31 Realizations to improve healthcare
36:59 What would you like to change in healthcare or in nursing?
46:34 How does it feel to be out of leadership status?
50:25 Who do you want to have one last cup of coffee with?