Trail Posts Blog

For many healthcare professionals, the workday doesn’t end when the shift is over. The patient who is still in pain, the family that looks to you for answers, the chart that didn’t get finished... these concerns linger long after you’ve left the clinic or hospital. Carrying this weight home can blur the line between professional and personal life. Over time, it erodes well-being, strains relationships, and feeds burnout. The skill of leaving work at work is not about being l

Every healthcare professional knows the weight of working in a system that feels stretched, inefficient, or even broken. Endless documentation, staffing shortages, overwhelming caseloads, and layers of bureaucracy can leave you questioning whether you’re making a difference at all. The truth is, the system is overloaded. And no single practitioner can fix it alone. But you can reclaim clarity, energy, and meaning by focusing on your True North... your values, your purpose,

We’ve all heard it, we've all said it: “Everyone’s too busy these days.” It’s become almost fashionable to declare that busyness is bad... a badge of burnout or a sign that we’ve lost touch with what matters. But here’s the truth: not all busyness is bad.

You signed up to care for patients, not to carry the weight of their suffering home in your pockets. Yet if you’ve worked in oncology for any length of time, you know it’s nearly impossible not to absorb some of the pain, fear, and loss you witness every day. It’s part of being human — and part of what makes you a compassionate professional. But it also has a name: secondary traumatic stress.

It often takes a collapse to realize how much we’ve been holding. I provided one-on-one patient care for nearly four decades - compassionate, consistent, and deeply invested. It was the kind of work that came from the heart, and I wore my ability to show up for others like a badge of honor. I was the reliable one. The helper. The steady hand in someone else’s storm. And then came a storm of my own.

In oncology, managing pain is a central aspect of patient care. Addressing both primary and secondary pain can make an important difference.

In the face of a cancer diagnosis, emotions like fear, anxiety, and uncertainty can feel overwhelming. Blessing can be empowering.