Carolien Burghout is a Nursing Specialist in Hematology and a PhD candidate in ‘Care in the last years of life’ at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital. In her column you get an insight into her work.
I turn on the computer, get a cup of tea and open the consultation agenda to prepare that day’s patients. It is a well-filled consultation hour. The nurse specialist in training from Germany who is accompanying me today will gain sufficient insight into how care for patients with metastatic cancer is organized in our Den Bosch region. In addition to the hospital, she also looks into home care and hospice. The morning flies by. Some consultations are planned in the afternoon and there are still some jobs that really need to be tackled. At 4 p.m. I will join a meeting about psychosocial care that will last until 6:30 p.m. In short, a full programme.
Such long days can be tough and tiring. After days like that, when I get home I prefer to just hang on the couch and do nothing. But today it feels different. During the meeting I was provided with valuable information. The presentation by Andreas Inderwisch, spiritual counselor at the JBZ, leaves a deep impression. While he explains his role as a spiritual counselor in a visual way, the room is silent. He knows how to slow me down on this busy day. My thoughts no longer have room for other things. I’m all ears. His words about ‘slow questions’ stick. Slow questions are life questions that cannot simply be answered. Slow questions are about relationships, work, loss, desires and choices for which there are no quick or technological solutions. In his role as a spiritual counselor, he tries to work with people to find answers to slow questions. Slow questions… I also ask them regularly in the consultation room. Slow questions about care and the end of life. These are topics that can evoke feelings of powerlessness, finitude, conflict and vulnerability in patients. Patients are encouraged to look inward and let their hearts speak. This requires courage, patience and time from both patient and care provider.
The meeting keeps me going and has prompted me to think about certain slow questions, both work-related and private. New seeds are planned that evening. Seeds that, with the right amount of water and nutrition, can grow into new insights and answers. This also applies to our patients. We can provide them with seeds, which they can decide for themselves whether they want to plant. So that, with the help of others, they can let the seeds grow into answers to life’s questions.
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