As the tagline of this newsletter says, we could all use a little healing right now. And so, I’m asking for your help in spreading the word about the paperback edition of my newest book, Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient. It comes out April 11. This is the first time I’ve made a direct appeal like this. I’m asking now because you, my wonderfully supportive newsletter readers, know the comfort and community to be found in sharing stories of navigating the healthcare system, both as patients and providers, as I write about in Healing.
How to Promote Healing
Buy the book! Obvious, I know, but still…
Come to my launch event on April 11 at the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, PA. (link HERE). You can read more about the event and the Penguin Bookshop below.
Snap a pic of Healing and share it on social media. You can tag me at @theresabrownrn2021 on Instagram and @TheresaBrown on Twitter. I’m also back on facebook as “Theresa Brown.”
Pick Healing for your book club. Invite me to join your book group virtually by sending a request through the contact page on my website (link HERE). Read more about book club ideas below.
Gift Healing to…the nurses, doctors, EMTs, PTs, RTs, healthcare executives, patients, medical and nursing students in your life, or anyone else who’s been frustrated by our health care system. See below where I talk more about how compassion could do a lot to make American health care better.
Book Launch event on April 11
Come to the paperback launch at the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, PA the evening of April 11 at 7:00pm (Link HERE). The Penguin Bookshop is at 417 Beaver Street in Sewickley. This is an in-person event only, so apologies if you’re not local. I’ll be in conversation with the ever-fabulous Nancy Zionts from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (Pittsburghers may also know Nancy from her other job as a producer at Front Porch Theatricals).
Pittsburgh city-dwellers may be thinking, “Why would I go to Sewickley, even for Theresa?” The answer is that the Penguin Bookshop is a cozy independent bookstore that has been in business since 1929! Pittsburgh Magazine included it in “Four Pittsburgh-Area Bookstores That We Love.” And, we will have a small party afterwards where people can hang out and mingle in a more relaxed way than was possible with the launch last year, when we were all still wearing masks. In short, it will be fun! Plus, Sewickley’s not that far away. Not really.
Invite me to a book group
Zoom makes some good things possible. One is that I can zoom into book groups. I’ve done a few of these already and I find them really enjoyable. Sign up for a book group meeting through this page of my website: TheresaBrownRN.com. If you are currently in a book group, or if you have a group of friends or colleagues, in health care or not, who would like to read and discuss Healing, I’ll happily join in.
As a bonus, if you sign up for a book group I will send you signed Healing book plates for your books—the next best thing to being there. If you’re local and invite me to a book group I will sign your books in person!
Gift Healing to spread the word about compassion
I’m five years out from my breast cancer diagnosis and healthy and disease-free, but aspects of my care, and how unfeeling it was, still rankle. Modern health care fixed me, but it didn’t heal me, and that’s a problem not just for me but for many patients. It’s also a problem that’s getting worse as more and more nurses and doctors, and other health care workers, leave the bedside, saying they cannot care for patients the way those patients deserve. Clinicians are also finding it challenging to have compassion for themselves when that is needed, too.
In Healing I make the argument that there’s actually a business case for compassion. I quote from the book Compassionomics to show that up-front compassion has tangible benefits in terms of reducing the amount of care patients need, which in turn saves money. This is the message I want to get to the CEOs, COOs, and especially CFOs of health care organizations. Over and over we see that leaders in health care do not make empathy and caring easy for staff because many leaders view those behaviors as lacking economic value.
My experience in radiation oncology showed me that compassion is not expensive. It doesn’t require a “Patient Compassion Initiative,” or a “Compassion Officer.” Those things could be great, but they’re not necessary. Compassionate health care exists where the people in charge decide to treat patients as human beings. That might seem like a simple point, but making it happen when our current health care system often doesn’t even try, will require a sea change in thinking about care and its administration.
Do you know a member of government or a hospital executive, a nurse manager or medical school faculty member, who could benefit from the message of compassion in Healing? Or a struggling nurse or doctor who might take comfort from having their desire to give patients more humane care validated? Or a patient who felt abandoned by the system? Yes, I want to sell books, but I also sincerely want to make the world a better place. My hope is that Healing, if read by enough people, and in some cases the right people, can help do just that.
Hugs to all and thanks for supporting Healing!
Theresa
I couldn’t agree more. As an ER nurse for close to 20 years I have seen the department change so much over the years. Everyone is so busy and patient education and teaching are the first things to go. It’s such a fine line as a provider to “feel it” with your patients as burnout rates are so high and you have to take care of yourself while to continue to take care of your patients. I just ordered the book! Have you read In Shock by Dr. Rana Awdish? If not I highly recommend!
I think I need to check with my book group--it would be so wonderful to have you zoom into a session!