Anne’s Story

Have you ever been part of a system that you wish was different? I have. I was a nurse in the United  States for 38 years…  

Today, our health care system remains broken. It fails to implement the most basic tenets of care: to listen, be present, to tailor expertise to the diverse range of human experience.  

People need health care that is expert, compassionate, collaborative and kind.  

A broken system has little room for this kind of care. 

Some examples:  

• When my father was told he was dying of cancer - his oncologist could not look at him.  

• Cis gender means that you identified at birth as either male or female and that you agree with that label.  Of all the transgender youth with whom I have worked - youth who know the label they were assigned at birth was a mistake - the average age they reported knowing their  label was “wrong” - was two years old. Have you ever been asked about your label? Why label at all?  

• 70% of people with female internal organs will experience pelvic organ prolapse - no one talks about it.  • People of all kinds do not understand menstruation - no one talks about it.  

• Most people with male internal organs will experience enlarged prostrates - no one talks about it.  • Most folks do not understand dying - no one talks about it.  

• What is your example?  

Within a broken system there are providers who offer expert health care that is  compassionate, collaborative and kind. Providers who talk about It. Seek them out. They’re what our healthcare system needs and what you deserve. The broken System contains some beautiful individual parts.  

This Sculpture stands in stark contrast to our broken Health Care system. In this Sculpture,  individual parts, all of which are stellar, combine in a magnificent whole. One that talks about It.  

I am wondering: what is your reaction to this Sculpture? Blessings on disparate parts that create a greater whole.

-Anne, she/her, 63