Compassionate Care: The Happiness in Giving Service With Jessica MacLeod
Jessica MacLeod, PhD, is the nurse practitioner who takes us inside the world we see in the documentary Invisible Patients ~ a film born out of her years tending to the elderly and gravely ill, people who are housebound and falling through the cracks of our healthcare system.
Jessica talks with Susan about her personal burnout from being on the front lines, the obstacles in our culture and in our health-care system that neglect the people who need health care the most, and how the idea of “teamwork” within the hierarchical structure of our medical system is slow in coming.
The five years in service was a steep learning curve for Jessica; joyous, eye opening, and at times overwhelming. She learned about her own limits, the need to balance work/life, and how to mediate the guilt of leaving her co-workers and patients by turning it into advocacy for better care for the marginal in our society.
Meet This Episode's Guest
Jessica MacLeod
Jessica MacLeod received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT in 1996. She went on to receive a Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner (2003) and a PhD in Nursing Science (2009) from Indiana University in Indianapolis, IN.
Her nursing career includes bedside nursing on a renal – telemetry unit at a large teaching hospital in Connecticut, a staff nurse at a nursing home for patients with dementia in Grantham, England, and a college health nurse.
As a nurse practitioner she has worked in family practice and a home based primary care practice.
She lives in Evansville, Indiana with her husband James, daughter Eilidh, and sons Calum and Gavin.
Visit the Invisible Patients website for more information about the film!
“I really just want the audience to see the people I see – how they live, what challenges they face in terms of health, economics, addiction, lack of education. I just want people to know that these invisible patients are here, among us – they’re in our communities, and we need to do more to take care of them.”