About Tawnya

I am a critical care nurse at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, working in a 29 bed Neurological ICU.  I am also the Co-Chair of the ICU Palliative Care committee and help run a Compassion Fatigue workshop for my colleagues at UCSF. Often our neuro patients come to us with sudden and unexpected life-altering diseases or injuries.  As a bedside nurse, it is common practice to focus primarily on the technical aspects of caring for a critically ill person, and making communication with the family a secondary concern.  When I was a new nurse, I felt ill-equipped and at loss for the right language to have conversations around what the future may hold for their loved ones.   This didn't change until a few years ago when I decided to attend a workshop called "Communicating with Families and Providers About Prognosis, Goals of Care and Palliative Care."  This workshop gave me the skills to more fully connect with patients and families and help guide them so that they can make decisions about goals of care, prognosis and palliative care that are in line with the patient’s values and wishes. It is my privilege to now be part of the faculty that facilitates this workshop.