In this book, Laurie Barkin explores "Who will care for caregivers?The Comfort Garden: Tales from the Trauma Unit is a Book of the Year winner at the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) and a Nautilus award. The story is Laurie Barkin’s account of the five years she worked as a psychiatric nurse on the surgical/trauma unit at San Francisco General Hospital. Told against the backdrop of patients who survived motor vehicle accidents, falls, fires, fists, bullets, and knives, The Comfort Garden is a metaphor for the emotional support caregivers need. The story illuminates the issues of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma that may develop in caregivers when exposure to tragedy becomes routine.
The Comfort Garden will appeal to health care professionals, firefighters, police, war veterans, social workers, journalists, students, and anyone whose life is touched by trauma.
“The Comfort Garden reveals the real world ofhuman-to-human caring at its highest level.” — Jean Watson, RN, PhD, author of Human Caring Science: A Theory of Nursing
“Laurie is that rare health professional with a gift for narrative and a story to tell. This is an important book for any health care worker, but especially for those of us who consider ourselves traumatic stress specialists. It reinforces the values and the spirit that brought us into the field. And it reminds us of the obstacles we face every day: human cruelty, social injustice, dwindling resources. Read this. You’ll be better for it.” — Frank M Ochberg MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Michigan State University
Laurie Barkin “sensitively documents the process of vicarious trauma — how caregivers like herself internalize their patients' trauma.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“In an age when hospitals have been turning to quicker-acting medications, faster discharges, and fewer deep and meaningful conversationswith patients, Laurie Barkin takes the opposite position. She urges us to make the time to use our knowledge of psychodynamic psychotherapy to help traumatized people early in the course of their distress.” — Lenore Terr MD, psychiatrist, author of Too Scared to Cry
“Whenever we walk into a hospital or a doctor’s office we often assume that the patients are somehow broken, sick or frightened andthat the nurses and doctors are whole, healthy and brave. In stories that prove these assumptions false, Laurie Barkin shows us how permeable the line actually is between the cared for and the caregiver.” — Cortney Davis, author of The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing
“In an age when hospitals have been turning to quicker-acting medications, faster discharges, and fewer deep and meaningful conversationswith patients, Laurie Barkin takes the opposite position. She urges us to make the time to use our knowledge of psychodynamic psychotherapy to help traumatized people early in the courseof their distress.” — Lenore Terr MD, psychiatrist,author of Too Scared to Cry
Laurie Barkin has worked as a staff nurse and head nurse on in-patient units and day treatment centers, as a psych liaison nurse, and as a psych nursing instructor at University of San Francisco School of Nursing. Before writing The Comfort Garden: Tales from the Trauma Unit, Laurie worked for 22 years as a psychiatric nurse. Along the way, she has designed and facilitated nurse retreats and led support groups for staff. She is a consultant to the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Psychiatry, providing support for psychiatric staff at San Francisco General Hospital. She is an active member of the Bay Area Red Cross Disaster Mental Health group. Laurie Barkin began her nursing career on a surgical ICU before transferring to psychiatric nursing. After five years working on in-patient units in and around Boston, she returned to Boston University School of Nursing and earned a masters degree in adult psychiatric nursing with a focus on psychiatric consultation-liaison nursing. During those years, Laurie sang jazz standards in dinner clubs and hotel lounges in the Boston area. These days, Laurie has neither lost her voice nor her love for singing: she practices daily and sings with friends and family at neighborhood and holiday parties. With her husband, attorney Brian Brosnahan, Laurie raised three children. In combining her creative spirit with her passion for nursing, Laurie continues writing and welcomes stories you would like to share about the work you do. She has said, "In my role as a psychiatric nurse working on the surgical trauma unit at San Francisco General Hospital, I listened to hundreds of trauma stories. When I listened deeply and without judgment, my patients seemed to feel heard and validated, an uncommon experience for many. Together we examined the twists, turns, and tragedies that had complicated their lives—and the feelings that accompanied them. Working with patients in this way required all of my skills as a psych nurse. The work was meaningful and fulfilling." Laurie Barkin is available for lectures and workshops.
