Create a free Bookclubs account to organize your book club, get reading recommendations, view hundreds of discussion guides, and more!
Healing
New York Times bestselling author Theresa Brown tells a poignant, powerful, and intensely personal story about breast cancer. She brings us along with her from the mammogram that would change her life through her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Despite her training and years of experience as an oncology and hospice nurse, she finds herself continually surprised by the lack of compassion in the medical maze—just as so many of us have. Why is she expected to wait over a long weekend
to hear the results of her cancer tests if they are ready? Where is the empathy from caregivers? Why is she so often left in the dark about procedures and treatments? At times she’s mad at herself for not speaking up and asking for what she needs but knows that being labeled a “difficult” patient could mean she gets worse care.
As she did in her book The Shift, Brown draws us into her work with the unforgettable details of her daily life—the needles, the chemo drugs, the rubber gloves, the frustrated patients—but from her new perch as a patient, she also takes a look back with rare candor at some of her own cases as a nurse and considers what she didn’t know then and what she could have done better.
A must-read for fans of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms, and all of us who have tried to find healing through our health-care system.
This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Algonquin
Book club questions for Healing by Theresa Brown
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
When Theresa becomes a patient she forgets much of what she had learned about breast cancer as a nurse. Have you ever had a similar experience—a time when you really needed your professional expertise to help with a personal issue, but your knowledge and experience were suddenly unavailable to you?
Though Theresa is worried she will be labeled a “difficult patient,” there are several moments in which she gets angry enough to assert herself. Have you ever been conflicted about asserting yourself with health care providers? Did you worry it would affect your care in a negative way?
An oft-quoted statistic about health care in the U.S. is that we spend more money than any other industrialized country yet, for many, quality care is not as satisfactory. Do you agree with Theresa that greed is one of the problems in American health care? What adjustments would you suggest for our healthcare system?
Healing makes the argument that compassionate care leads to better outcomes. Theresa uses the term “supererogatory.” How does or doesn’t it apply in health care and why do patients define compassionate care as going “above and beyond?” Above and beyond what, exactly?
Throughout Healing, Brown highlights health disparities and the reality that people of color often receive lower quality care than white patients do. Talk about racism in the health care system, using examples from the book and your own experiences.
Consider some of the repeat images in Healing: rabbit holes, a seesaw, turtles, spatchcock, the color pink. How do you think these images work to illuminate the themes in the book?
The end of “Bedside Manner” (Chapter 13) includes Theresa’s wish for a more “warm and fuzzy” surgeon, even as she acknowledges that her surgeon did a very good job. What conflicts arise when technically skilled physicians don’t have good interpersonal skills.
“RadOnc” (Chapter 19) highlights what the Radiation Oncology Department did to make patients feel like human beings. Theresa describes their work as, “This was not rocket science.” Talk about why the ordinary kindnesses in RadOnc made such a difference.
Healing’s many short chapters alternate between Theresa’s experiences as a cancer patient and as a nurse. What do you think that choice—both the brevity and the interweaving of these two parts of her life—accomplished?
How did this book alter your understanding of a cancer patient? How did this book alter your understanding of nursing?
Healing Book Club Questions PDF
Click here for a printable PDF of the Healing discussion questions
“Healing is a stunning book that helped me understand how to survive a serious illness and how to understand hospitals in general. Theresa Brown, RN, is also a hell of a good writer.”
—James Patterson
“Revealing and heart-wrenching . . . Alternating the narrative between her time as a nurse and as a patient, she passionately shares the range of emotions she felt and offers advice for both patients and nurses who are facing breast cancer . . . By sharing her story, Brown delivers much-needed advocacy for those who are often ignored or misunderstood. An essential read for all members of the medical community.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Timely . . . Brown’s clear-eyed and eloquent examination of illness—from the inside and from the outside—is illuminating… moving and enlightening.”
—Library Journal
“This is the book I want to give to all my colleagues and patients—a smart, moving, clear-eyed, yet ultimately hopeful jewel of a read on health and care from one of the most thoughtful healthcare writers I know.”
—Pauline W. Chen, MD, New York Times contributor and bestselling author of Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality
“A deeply moving story of an oncology nurse forced to navigate our imperfect health care system after an ultrasound exam upends her life. Brown offers important lessons for patients and health care providers alike.”
—Damon Tweedy, New York Times bestselling author of Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine