WEBVTT 00:00:00.847 --> 00:00:02.143 As patients, 00:00:02.143 --> 00:00:05.783 we usually remember the names of our doctors, 00:00:05.783 --> 00:00:09.324 but often we forget the names of our nurses. 00:00:09.697 --> 00:00:11.273 I remember one. 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:13.904 I had breast cancer a few years ago, 00:00:13.904 --> 00:00:17.428 and somehow I managed to get through the surgeries 00:00:17.428 --> 00:00:19.825 and the beginning of the treatment just fine. 00:00:20.078 --> 00:00:22.014 I could hide what was going on. 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.560 Everybody didn't really have to know. 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:26.760 I could walk my daughter to school, 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:28.787 I could go out to dinner with my husband; 00:00:28.787 --> 00:00:30.570 I could fool people. 00:00:30.933 --> 00:00:33.296 But then my chemo was scheduled to begin, 00:00:33.296 --> 00:00:35.126 and that terrified me 00:00:35.126 --> 00:00:39.753 because I knew that I was going to lose every single hair on my body 00:00:39.753 --> 00:00:42.311 because of the kind of chemo that I was going to have. 00:00:42.683 --> 00:00:45.155 I wasn't going to be able to pretend anymore 00:00:45.155 --> 00:00:47.400 as though everything was normal. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:49.040 I was scared. 00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:52.612 I knew what it felt like to have everybody treating me with kid gloves, 00:00:52.612 --> 00:00:54.624 and I just wanted to feel normal. 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.269 I had a port installed in my chest. 00:00:57.269 --> 00:01:00.109 I went to my first day of chemotherapy, 00:01:00.109 --> 00:01:02.133 and I was an emotional wreck. 00:01:02.410 --> 00:01:05.512 My nurse Joanne walked in the door, 00:01:05.512 --> 00:01:09.391 and every bone in my body was telling me to get up out of that chair 00:01:09.391 --> 00:01:10.971 and take for the hills. 00:01:10.971 --> 00:01:14.680 But Joanne looked at me and talked to me like we were old friends. 00:01:15.362 --> 00:01:16.990 And then she asked me, 00:01:16.990 --> 00:01:19.240 "Where'd you get your highlights done?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:20.244 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:20.244 --> 00:01:21.240 And I was like, 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:22.303 are you kidding me? 00:01:22.303 --> 00:01:26.350 You're going to talk to me about my hair when I'm on the verge of losing it? 00:01:27.028 --> 00:01:28.870 I was kind of angry, 00:01:28.870 --> 00:01:31.913 and I said, "Really? Hair?" 00:01:31.913 --> 00:01:34.251 And with a shrug of her shoulders she said, 00:01:34.251 --> 00:01:36.127 "It's gonna grow back." 00:01:36.523 --> 00:01:39.823 And in that moment she said the one thing I had overlooked, 00:01:39.823 --> 00:01:41.700 and that was that at some point, 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:43.639 my life would get back to normal. 00:01:43.763 --> 00:01:45.401 She really believed that. 00:01:45.401 --> 00:01:47.370 And so I believed it, too. 00:01:47.739 --> 00:01:52.454 Now, worrying about losing your hair when you're fighting cancer 00:01:52.454 --> 00:01:54.226 may seem silly at first, 00:01:54.226 --> 00:01:58.336 but it's not just that you're worried about how you're going to look. 00:01:58.336 --> 00:02:02.126 It's that you're worried that everybody's going to treat you so carefully. 00:02:02.912 --> 00:02:06.604 Joanne made me feel normal for first time in six months. 00:02:06.604 --> 00:02:08.427 We talked about her boyfriends, 00:02:08.427 --> 00:02:11.300 we talked about looking for apartments in New York City, 00:02:11.300 --> 00:02:14.269 and we talked about my reaction to the chemotherapy -- 00:02:14.269 --> 00:02:16.391 all kind of mixed in together. 00:02:16.660 --> 00:02:18.770 I always wondered, 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:23.589 how did she so instinctively know just how to talk to me? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:23.691 --> 00:02:24.901 Joanne Staha, 00:02:24.901 --> 00:02:27.211 and my admiration for her, 00:02:27.211 --> 00:02:30.866 marked the beginning of my journey into the world of nurses. 00:02:31.595 --> 00:02:32.638 A few years later, 00:02:32.638 --> 00:02:34.097 I was asked to do a project 00:02:34.097 --> 00:02:36.805 that would celebrate the work that nurses do. 00:02:37.228 --> 00:02:38.972 I started with Joanne, 00:02:38.972 --> 00:02:42.277 and I met over 100 nurses across the country. 00:02:42.571 --> 00:02:47.614 I spent five years interviewing, photographing and filming nurses 00:02:47.614 --> 00:02:50.205 for a book and a documentary film. 00:02:50.723 --> 00:02:51.741 With my team, 00:02:51.741 --> 00:02:55.451 we mapped a trip across America that would take us to places 00:02:55.451 --> 00:03:00.389 dealing with some of the biggest public health issues facing our nation -- 00:03:00.389 --> 00:03:04.414 aging, war, poverty, prisons. 00:03:05.059 --> 00:03:06.497 And then we went places 00:03:06.497 --> 00:03:10.286 where we would find the largest concentration of patients 00:03:10.286 --> 00:03:12.076 dealing with those issues. 00:03:12.522 --> 00:03:16.696 Then we asked hospitals and facilities to nominate nurses 00:03:16.696 --> 00:03:18.654 who would best represent them. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:19.095 --> 00:03:21.892 One of the first nurses I met was Bridget Kumbella. 00:03:22.304 --> 00:03:24.202 Bridget was born in Cameroon, 00:03:24.202 --> 00:03:25.907 the oldest of four children. 00:03:26.616 --> 00:03:30.495 Her father was at work when he had fallen from the fourth floor 00:03:30.495 --> 00:03:32.114 and really hurt his back. 00:03:32.458 --> 00:03:36.532 He talked a lot about what it was like to be flat on your back 00:03:36.532 --> 00:03:39.107 and not get the kind of care that you need. 00:03:39.631 --> 00:03:43.530 That propelled Bridget to go into the profession of nursing. 00:03:44.169 --> 00:03:45.885 Now, as a nurse in the Bronx, 00:03:45.885 --> 00:03:49.359 she has a really diverse group of patients that she cares for, 00:03:49.359 --> 00:03:51.283 from all walks of life, 00:03:51.283 --> 00:03:53.287 and from all different religions. 00:03:53.677 --> 00:03:57.842 She's devoted her career to understanding the impact 00:03:57.842 --> 00:04:01.876 of our cultural differences when it comes to our health. 00:04:02.514 --> 00:04:03.912 She spoke of a patient -- 00:04:03.912 --> 00:04:06.655 a Native American patient that she had -- 00:04:06.655 --> 00:04:10.080 that wanted to bring a bunch of feathers into the ICU. 00:04:11.198 --> 00:04:14.129 That's how he found spiritual comfort. 00:04:14.378 --> 00:04:16.784 She spoke of advocating for him, 00:04:16.784 --> 00:04:19.414 and said that patients come from all different religions 00:04:19.414 --> 00:04:23.314 and use all different kinds of objects for comfort; 00:04:23.314 --> 00:04:26.781 whether it's a holy rosary or a symbolic feather, 00:04:26.781 --> 00:04:28.707 it all needs to be supported. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:29.392 --> 00:04:30.904 This is Jason Short. 00:04:31.143 --> 00:04:34.509 Jason is a home health nurse in the Appalachian mountains, 00:04:34.509 --> 00:04:38.524 and his dad had a gas station and a repair shop when he was growing up. 00:04:38.762 --> 00:04:42.861 So he worked on cars in the community that he now serves as a nurse. 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:44.926 When he was in college, 00:04:44.926 --> 00:04:48.933 it was just not macho at all to become a nurse, 00:04:48.933 --> 00:04:50.774 so he avoided it for years. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:52.988 He drove trucks for a little while, 00:04:52.988 --> 00:04:56.791 but his life path was always pulling him back to nursing. 00:04:58.451 --> 00:05:00.495 As a nurse in the Appalachian mountains, 00:05:00.495 --> 00:05:04.005 Jason goes places that an ambulance can't even get to. 00:05:04.281 --> 00:05:05.301 In this photograph, 00:05:05.301 --> 00:05:08.058 he's standing in what used to be a road. 00:05:08.294 --> 00:05:11.223 Top of the mountain mining flooded that road, 00:05:11.223 --> 00:05:14.497 and now the only way for Jason to get to the patient 00:05:14.497 --> 00:05:17.397 living in that house with black lung disease 00:05:17.397 --> 00:05:21.819 is to drive his SUV against the current up that creek. 00:05:22.576 --> 00:05:23.670 The day I was with him, 00:05:23.670 --> 00:05:25.940 we ripped the front fender off the car. 00:05:26.247 --> 00:05:28.299 The next morning he got up, 00:05:28.299 --> 00:05:29.582 put the car on the lift, 00:05:29.582 --> 00:05:30.663 fixed the fender, 00:05:30.663 --> 00:05:33.337 and then headed out to meet his next patient. 00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:37.127 I witnessed Jason caring for this gentleman 00:05:37.127 --> 00:05:40.060 with such enormous compassion, 00:05:40.060 --> 00:05:45.155 and I was struck again by how intimate the work of nursing really is. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:46.182 --> 00:05:47.895 When I met Brian McMillion, 00:05:47.895 --> 00:05:49.343 he was raw. 00:05:49.472 --> 00:05:52.068 He had just come back from a deployment, 00:05:52.068 --> 00:05:56.225 and he hadn't really settled back in to life in San Diego yet. 00:05:56.669 --> 00:06:00.307 He talked about his experience of being a nurse in Germany, 00:06:00.307 --> 00:06:03.812 and taking care of the soldiers coming right off the battlefield. 00:06:04.205 --> 00:06:07.951 Very often, he would be the first person they would see 00:06:07.951 --> 00:06:10.423 when they opened their eyes in the hospital. 00:06:10.771 --> 00:06:13.363 And they would look at him as they were lying there, 00:06:13.363 --> 00:06:15.172 missing limbs, 00:06:15.172 --> 00:06:19.581 and the first thing they would say is, "When can I go back? 00:06:19.581 --> 00:06:21.546 I left my brothers out there." 00:06:22.163 --> 00:06:23.937 And Brian would have to say, 00:06:23.937 --> 00:06:25.517 "You're not going anywhere. 00:06:25.517 --> 00:06:27.829 You've already given enough, brother." 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:32.936 Brian is both a nurse and a soldier who's seen combat. 00:06:33.412 --> 00:06:35.564 So that puts him in a unique position 00:06:35.564 --> 00:06:40.034 to be able to relate to and help heal the veterans in his care. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:41.813 --> 00:06:43.481 This is Sister Stephen, 00:06:43.481 --> 00:06:47.624 and she runs a nursing home in Wisconsin called Villa Loretto. 00:06:47.624 --> 00:06:51.487 The entire circle of life can be found under her roof. 00:06:51.912 --> 00:06:54.593 She grew up wishing they lived on a farm, 00:06:54.593 --> 00:06:59.307 so given the opportunity to adopt local farm animals, 00:06:59.307 --> 00:07:02.179 she enthusiastically brings them in. 00:07:02.402 --> 00:07:03.724 And in the springtime, 00:07:03.724 --> 00:07:05.669 those animals have babies. 00:07:05.849 --> 00:07:11.145 Sister Stephen uses those baby ducks, goats and lambs 00:07:11.145 --> 00:07:15.354 as animal therapy for the residents at Villa Loretto 00:07:15.354 --> 00:07:18.844 who sometimes can't remember their own name, 00:07:18.844 --> 00:07:22.827 but they do rejoice in the holding of a baby lamb. 00:07:23.615 --> 00:07:25.528 The day I was with Sister Stephen, 00:07:25.528 --> 00:07:27.589 I needed to take her away from Villa Loretto 00:07:27.589 --> 00:07:29.410 to film part of her story. 00:07:29.669 --> 00:07:31.063 And before we left, 00:07:31.063 --> 00:07:33.603 she went into the room of a dying patient. 00:07:34.202 --> 00:07:37.145 She leaned over and she said, 00:07:37.145 --> 00:07:39.765 "I have to go away for the day, 00:07:39.765 --> 00:07:41.513 but if Jesus calls you, 00:07:41.513 --> 00:07:42.542 you go. 00:07:42.542 --> 00:07:44.873 You go straight home to Jesus." 00:07:45.454 --> 00:07:48.273 I was standing there and thinking 00:07:48.273 --> 00:07:50.213 it was the first time in my life 00:07:50.213 --> 00:07:54.466 I witnessed that you could show someone you love them completely 00:07:54.466 --> 00:07:56.122 by letting go. 00:07:56.358 --> 00:07:58.940 We don't have to hold on so tightly. 00:07:59.532 --> 00:08:03.264 I saw more life rolled up at Villa Loretto 00:08:03.264 --> 00:08:07.909 than I have ever seen at any other time at any other place in my life. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:09.524 --> 00:08:13.421 We live in a complicated time when it comes to our health care. 00:08:13.650 --> 00:08:17.935 It's easy to lose sight of the need for quality of life, 00:08:17.935 --> 00:08:19.854 not just quantity of life. 00:08:20.412 --> 00:08:23.663 As new life-saving technologies are created, 00:08:23.663 --> 00:08:26.551 we're going to have really complicated decisions to make. 00:08:27.515 --> 00:08:30.414 These technologies often save lives, 00:08:30.414 --> 00:08:34.323 but they can also prolong pain and the dying process. 00:08:36.129 --> 00:08:39.146 How in the world are we supposed to navigate these waters? 00:08:39.146 --> 00:08:41.631 We're going to need all the help we can get. 00:08:42.072 --> 00:08:45.604 Nurses have a really unique relationship with us 00:08:45.604 --> 00:08:48.240 because of the time spent at bedside. 00:08:48.963 --> 00:08:50.019 During that time, 00:08:50.019 --> 00:08:53.037 a kind of emotional intimacy develops. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:54.768 --> 00:08:56.130 This past summer, 00:08:56.130 --> 00:08:57.474 on August ninth, 00:08:57.474 --> 00:08:59.487 my father died of a heart attack. 00:09:00.689 --> 00:09:02.662 My mother was devasted, 00:09:02.662 --> 00:09:06.444 and she couldn't imagine her world without him in it. 00:09:07.525 --> 00:09:09.643 Four days later she fell, 00:09:09.643 --> 00:09:11.420 she broke her hip, 00:09:11.420 --> 00:09:13.005 she needed surgery, 00:09:13.005 --> 00:09:16.003 and she found herself fighting for her own life. 00:09:17.013 --> 00:09:20.086 Once again I found myself on the receiving end 00:09:20.086 --> 00:09:21.926 of the care of nurses -- 00:09:21.926 --> 00:09:23.499 this time for my mom. 00:09:24.375 --> 00:09:27.066 My brother and my sister and I stayed by her side 00:09:27.066 --> 00:09:29.678 for the next three days in the ICU. 00:09:30.107 --> 00:09:33.443 And as we tried to make the right decisions, 00:09:33.454 --> 00:09:35.805 and follow my mother's wishes, 00:09:35.805 --> 00:09:40.018 we found that we were depending upon the guidance of nurses. 00:09:40.437 --> 00:09:42.027 And once again, 00:09:42.027 --> 00:09:43.803 they didn't let us down. 00:09:44.917 --> 00:09:49.636 They had an amazing insight in terms of how to care for my mom 00:09:49.636 --> 00:09:51.764 in the last four days of her life. 00:09:51.968 --> 00:09:55.441 They brought her comfort and relief from pain. 00:09:56.517 --> 00:10:01.879 They knew to encourage my sister and [I] to put a pretty nightgown on my mom, 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:03.883 long after it mattered to her, 00:10:03.883 --> 00:10:05.915 but it sure meant a lot to us. 00:10:07.247 --> 00:10:12.908 And they knew to come and wake me up just in time for my mom's last breath. 00:10:13.856 --> 00:10:16.118 Then they knew how long to leave me in the room 00:10:16.118 --> 00:10:18.362 with my mother after she died. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:19.110 --> 00:10:23.029 I have no idea how they know these things, 00:10:23.029 --> 00:10:26.132 but I do know that I am eternally grateful 00:10:26.132 --> 00:10:28.264 that they've guided me once again. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:29.093 --> 00:10:30.856 Thank you so very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:30.856 --> 00:10:32.484 (Applause)