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As patients,
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we usually remember
the names of our doctors,
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but often we forget
the names of our nurses.
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I remember one.
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I had breast cancer a few years ago,
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and somehow I managed
to get through the surgeries
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and the beginning
of the treatment just fine.
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I could hide what was going on.
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Everybody didn't really have to know.
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I could walk my daughter to school,
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I could go out to dinner with my husband;
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I could fool people.
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But then my chemo was scheduled to begin
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and that terrified me
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because I knew that I was going to lose
every single hair on my body
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because of the kind of chemo
that I was going to have.
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I wasn't going to be able
to pretend anymore
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as though everything was normal.
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I was scared.
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I knew what it felt like to have
everybody treating me with kid gloves,
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and I just wanted to feel normal.
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I had a port installed in my chest.
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I went to my first day of chemotherapy,
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and I was an emotional wreck.
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My nurse Joanne walked in the door,
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and every bone in my body was telling
me to get up out of that chair
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and take for the hills.
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But Joanne looked at me and talked
to me like we were old friends.
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And then she asked me,
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"Where'd you get your highlights done?"
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(Laughter)
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And I was like, are you kidding me?
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You're going to talk to me about my hair
when I'm on the verge of losing it?
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I was kind of angry,
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and I said, "Really? Hair?"
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And with a shrug
of her shoulders she said,
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"It's gonna grow back."
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And in that moment she said
the one thing I had overlooked,
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and that was that at some point,
my life would get back to normal.
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She really believed that.
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And so I believed it, too.
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Now, worrying about losing your hair
when you're fighting cancer
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may seem silly at first,
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but it's not just that you're worried
about how you're going to look.
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It's that you're worried that everybody's
going to treat you so carefully.
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Joanne made me feel normal
for the first time in six months.
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We talked about her boyfriends,
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we talked about looking
for apartments in New York City,
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and we talked about my reaction
to the chemotherapy --
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all kind of mixed in together.
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And I always wondered,
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how did she so instinctively
know just how to talk to me?
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Joanne Staha and my admiration for her
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marked the beginning of my journey
into the world of nurses.
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A few years later,
I was asked to do a project
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that would celebrate
the work that nurses do.
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I started with Joanne,
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and I met over 100 nurses
across the country.
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I spent five years interviewing,
photographing and filming nurses
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for a book and a documentary film.
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With my team,
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we mapped a trip across America
that would take us to places
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dealing with some of the biggest
public health issues facing our nation --
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aging, war, poverty, prisons.
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And then we went places
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where we would find
the largest concentration of patients
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dealing with those issues.
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Then we asked hospitals and facilities
to nominate nurses
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who would best represent them.
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One of the first nurses I met
was Bridget Kumbella.
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Bridget was born in Cameroon,
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the oldest of four children.
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Her father was at work
when he had fallen from the fourth floor
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and really hurt his back.
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And he talked a lot about what it was like
to be flat on your back
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and not get the kind
of care that you need.
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And that propelled Bridget
to go into the profession of nursing.
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Now, as a nurse in the Bronx,
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she has a really diverse group
of patients that she cares for,
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from all walks of life,
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and from all different religions.
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And she's devoted her career
to understanding the impact
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of our cultural differences
when it comes to our health.
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She spoke of a patient --
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a Native American patient that she had --
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that wanted to bring
a bunch of feathers into the ICU.
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That's how he found spiritual comfort.
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And she spoke of advocating for him,
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and said that patients come
from all different religions
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and use all different kinds
of objects for comfort;
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whether it's a holy rosary
or a symbolic feather,
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it all needs to be supported.
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This is Jason Short.
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Jason is a home health nurse
in the Appalachian mountains,
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and his dad had a gas station
and a repair shop when he was growing up.
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So he worked on cars in the community
that he now serves as a nurse.
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When he was in college,
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it was just not macho at all
to become a nurse,
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so he avoided it for years.
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He drove trucks for a little while,
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but his life path was always
pulling him back to nursing.
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As a nurse in the Appalachian mountains,
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Jason goes places
that an ambulance can't even get to.
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In this photograph,
he's standing in what used to be a road.
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Top of the mountain mining
flooded that road,
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and now the only way
for Jason to get to the patient
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living in that house
with black lung disease
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is to drive his SUV
against the current up that creek.
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The day I was with him,
we ripped the front fender off the car.
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The next morning he got up,
put the car on the lift,
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fixed the fender,
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and then headed out
to meet his next patient.
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I witnessed Jason
caring for this gentleman
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with such enormous compassion,
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and I was struck again by how intimate
the work of nursing really is.
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When I met Brian McMillion, he was raw.
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He had just come back from a deployment
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and he hadn't really settled back in
to life in San Diego yet.
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He talked about his experience
of being a nurse in Germany,
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and taking care of the soldiers
coming right off the battlefield.
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Very often, he would be
the first person they would see
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when they opened
their eyes in the hospital.
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And they would look at him
as they were lying there,
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missing limbs,
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and the first thing they would say is,
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"When can I go back?
I left my brothers out there."
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And Brian would have to say,
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"You're not going anywhere.
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You've already given enough, brother."
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Brian is both a nurse and a soldier
who's seen combat.
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So that puts him in a unique position
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to be able to relate to and help heal
the veterans in his care.
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This is Sister Stephen,
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and she runs a nursing home
in Wisconsin called Villa Loretto.
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And the entire circle of life
can be found under her roof.
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She grew up wishing they lived on a farm,
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so given the opportunity
to adopt local farm animals,
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she enthusiastically brings them in.
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And in the springtime,
those animals have babies.
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And Sister Stephen uses
those baby ducks, goats and lambs
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as animal therapy
for the residents at Villa Loretto
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who sometimes can't
remember their own name,
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but they do rejoice
in the holding of a baby lamb.
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The day I was with Sister Stephen,
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I needed to take her away
from Villa Loretto
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to film part of her story.
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And before we left,
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she went into the room of a dying patient.
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And she leaned over and she said,
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"I have to go away for the day,
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but if Jesus calls you,
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you go.
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You go straight home to Jesus."
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I was standing there and thinking
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it was the first time in my life
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I witnessed that you could show
someone you love them completely
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by letting go.
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We don't have to hold on so tightly.
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I saw more life rolled up at Villa Loretto
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than I have ever seen at any other time
at any other place in my life.
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We live in a complicated time
when it comes to our health care.
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It's easy to lose sight
of the need for quality of life,
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not just quantity of life.
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As new life-saving
technologies are created,
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we're going to have really
complicated decisions to make.
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These technologies often save lives,
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but they can also prolong pain
and the dying process.
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How in the world are we supposed
to navigate these waters?
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We're going to need
all the help we can get.
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Nurses have a really unique
relationship with us
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because of the time spent at bedside.
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During that time,
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a kind of emotional intimacy develops.
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This past summer, on August 9,
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my father died of a heart attack.
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My mother was devastated,
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and she couldn't imagine
her world without him in it.
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Four days later she fell,
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she broke her hip,
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she needed surgery,
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and she found herself
fighting for her own life.
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Once again I found myself
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on the receiving end
of the care of nurses --
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this time for my mom.
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My brother and my sister and I
stayed by her side
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for the next three days in the ICU.
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And as we tried
to make the right decisions
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and follow my mother's wishes,
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we found that we were depending
upon the guidance of nurses.
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And once again,
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they didn't let us down.
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They had an amazing insight
in terms of how to care for my mom
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in the last four days of her life.
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They brought her comfort
and relief from pain.
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They knew to encourage my sister and I
to put a pretty nightgown on my mom,
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long after it mattered to her,
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but it sure meant a lot to us.
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And they knew to come and wake me up
just in time for my mom's last breath.
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And then they knew
how long to leave me in the room
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with my mother after she died.
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I have no idea how they know these things,
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but I do know that I am eternally grateful
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that they've guided me once again.
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Thank you so very much.
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(Applause)