I was a young woman and a relatively new nurse when I began working for VNSNY in 1998. My days and years past are filled with precious memories and experiences as an employee of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. All of those professional experiences transcend to my heart and spirit to become an integral part of the person, woman, mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, friend, and nurse I have become. But THE day that stands out for me the most is a day that is full of sorrow…

I have been a bit neglectful of my blogging responsibilities of late, something I don’t need to remind my VNSNY colleagues. July has been a month of transitions for me. I have a new role at work, which is both exciting and daunting. And while I am still learning to balance official responsibilities with unofficial responsibilities, and taking on new tasks while maintaining all of the old ones would seem to be what is proving to be most difficult, it is not. And this brings me to the other transition…

“Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. Unlike hospice care, palliative medicine is appropriate for patients in all disease stages, including those undergoing treatment for curable illnesses and those living with chronic diseases, as well as patients who are nearing the end of life. Palliative medicine utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, relying on input from physicians, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, and other allied health professionals in formulating a plan of care to relieve suffering…

Life is unpredictable and you never really know which way it will take you. As health professionals, we go in with the expectation (and hope) that we will impart some wisdom, say the right words or perhaps do something that makes “everything all right” for our patients when they encounter experiences they had not anticipated. We have stories to share and we hope it can help others make sense of the chaos life can be.

However at times the tables are turned and it’s the patient who ends up helping us.…

The end of 2010 is almost upon us and I, for one, could not be happier. The conclusion of the year always brings with it its share of “In Memoriam” presentations, and the web is the ideal medium to present a slideshow of those who have passed. The Oscars have their version, too, usually accompanied by mournful music and a well-intentioned introduction.

In the past, VNSNY Hospice has held its own memorial service once a year. Families were invited to submit a photo for a slideshow and donate a piece of…

One of our participants has had a very ill daughter for many years. Over the years, her daughter has visited us at the center, enjoyed our entertainment, and always admired the jewelry that her mother made here. Our participant loves jewelry making and has made many necklaces for her daughter. It’s been so therapeutic for her to get involved in these art projects during these difficult years, and it was especially important to her to be able to give her daughter these gifts.

Sadly last week, her daughter passed away. She…

Prior to the June 22 episode of “Deadliest Catch,” I had, if you’ll pardon the pun, never caught an episode. When I heard in February that the captain of one of the crab boats had a stroke and subsequently died a couple of weeks later, I wondered how and if it would be handled on the show. I was drawn to the episode, the first in a four-episode-arc that promises to show the struggles of Captain Harris’ family, for one simple reason — as Clark Bunting, the president and general…

Since April is National Poetry Month, I have been trying to determine all month long which poems relating to death and dying would be ripe for blogging. Fortunately, the poems worthy of discussion presented themselves to me when I went to an exhibition recently at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea. They appeared in the concluding gallery of the exhibition called Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures, which for one second seemed like the right title for this blog, but then I thought better of it.

The exhibition itself…

(Photo by Michael Barkowski)

Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.

Those are the opening sentences in Joan Didion’s book, “The Year Of Magical Thinking“, winner of a National Book Award. It tells the story of the author’s journey with grief and loss after the sudden death of her husband in 2003.

Ms. Didion’s story and her process of grief very closely resembles my mom’s experience. My mom lost her husband, my father, in a similar manner…

I spent much of Presidents’ Day night on the web searching for blog ideas. Not to worry, I was not neglecting other responsibilities. My husband was at his Pilates class and I was taping 24.

My original thought was to write about Patrick Kennedy choosing not to run for re-election. He is still mourning his father (who was a hospice patient), and he himself has battled depression, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse. I attended a great VNSNY workshop on “Addiction and Recovery in Grief” and was fascinated to learn that people…