It was the fall of 2017 that Theresa Brown, PhD, BSN ’07 received a diagnosis she wasn’t expecting: breast cancer.
“I thought, I’ve taken care of so many cancer patients and I know what cancer is, but I was completely unprepared for how absolutely terrifying I found it,” she said.
The School of Nursing alumni spent her career as a nurse taking care of cancer patients, and as a hospice nurse, she’s had tough conversations with patients and their families. But she said none of that prepared her for her own diagnosis.
“Even though I’ve seen people die, helped people die, talked with people about dying, to suddenly have my own mortality slap me across my face was not something I was prepared for,” she said.
Brown said as a nurse, she had expectations of what her diagnosis and treatment would be like. She assumed order and organization to her treatment, but instead was left finding her own doctors, and getting her own answers into whether she needed important procedures like chemotherapy. Brown said the lack of compassion was surprising and appalling.
“There were so many instances where it seemed like this person doesn’t see me as a human being in need,” she said. “There was so little compassion and empathy and I just felt like a widget moving along in an assembly line with a cash register that went ‘cha-ching’ in different spots.”
“This felt like a story I couldn’t not tell.”
Brown is already a New York Times Bestselling Author of The Shift and felt that sharing about her cancer journey could help others. Two years after her diagnosis she started writing; knowing that she could use her journey to start a conversation about what patients are experiencing and hopefully create change. Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient, hits bookshelves April 12, 2022. The book not only chronicles her diagnosis, treatment and recovery but asks readers to show a little more compassion.
“I would really want people to think more about kindness and seeing patients as human beings,” she said. “That message somehow got lost. People have seemed to have forgotten that people who are sick are vulnerable or scared and so remembering and honoring that is really important.”
“There needs to be compassion to staff in order for them to have compassion for the patient,” she continued. “That kindness needs to come from the top and move all the way down.”
Bestselling author James Patterson received an advanced copy of Brown’s book and called it stunning, helping him understand how to survive a serious illness and hospitals. New York Times Bestselling author Damon Tweedy, who also reviewed the book ahead of the release date called Brown’s book, “deeply moving.”
“I hope that once the book comes out that we can say that we just got though a pandemic and everyone needs healing, and a big part of healing is caring a being compassionate,” she said. “It’s going to be really important for everyone to embrace.”