All In The Mind, A Podcast: The Nurse Who Went The Extra Mile To Help Her Cancer Patient

Why would a nurse who gave a patient treatment for bladder cancer be nominated for a mental health award? Well, because she understood a crucial thing about providing care: that the psychological aspect of an illness, whether directly associated with the illness or not, is massively important.

Fiona was sexually abused in her childhood, and receiving treatment for cancer – which involved the nurse touching her private parts – meant reliving her trauma. Lucky for her, the nurse was Tanya, who realized that care and compassion is the winning combo, so she did everything to make her patient feel safe: she moved around the room quietly, explained every step of the process, didn’t clank the bins or the medical instruments, she put Fiona alone in a waiting room so that she wouldn’t get jumpy, and so on.

“It highlights to me the importance of not disentangling the relationship between physical health and psychological health. And it’s wonderful to see an individual reaching out in a way that enables someone else to benefit from treatment optimally.”

Elaborating on the topic of how what’s happening in our minds can also affect our bodies, the programme then takes on the question of why so many people find it difficult to get to sleep and the world of good a to-do list could do to them, the effects of conscientiousness on our health, and, finally, yawning—is it really contagious, or does it depend on who is yawning?