JoAnn Nayer-Grutza

略歴

JoAnn had a twenty-year career in the entertainment industry, then was compelled to become a nurse in her early 40s after watching nurses diligently care for her husband after he underwent surgery. She has always been drawn to end of life care, and at the VA she consults patients in Palliative and Hospice care options, where she tries to make each one of her dying patients “the star of their own movie.”

参加作品

Defining Hope
Defining Hope
Self - Nurse
We aren't dying the way we used to. We have ventilators, dialysis machines, ICUs-technologies that can "fix" us and keep our bodies alive-which have radically changed how we make medical decisions. In our death-denying culture, no matter how sick we get, there is always "hope." Defining Hope tells the story of patients dealing with life-threatening illness as they move between ICUs, operating rooms, hospice care and home. Diane is a nurse caring for end-stage cancer patients when she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer herself. 23-year-old Alena undergoes a risky brain surgery that destroys her short-term memory. 95-year-old Berthold lives with his elderly wife who struggles to honor his wish of dying peacefully at home. Defining Hope follows these patients and others- and the nurses that guide them along the way- as they face death, embrace hope, and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living.