On Topic: Hope in Healthcare with Theresa Brown (“The Cost of Care: How Four Nurses Put Patients First in a Profit-Driven System”)

Photo Credit: Jeff Swensen Theresa Brown worked as an oncology nurse for years before finally burning out, but instead of leaving the healthcare system behind entirely, she set out to find places where it’s actually working. This richly drawn portrait of four nurses in four different sectors of our broken healthcare system reveals where solutions are actually possible—to make care about people rather than profits. Join Theresa in conversation with Neal Bisno. You can purchase a copy of The Cost of Care at the City of Asylum Bookstore. About the Author: Theresa Brown, RN, author of the New York Times bestseller The Shift, has been a contributor to the New York Times. Her writing appears on CNN.com and in the American Journal of Nursing, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She has been a guest on MSNBC Live and NPR’s Fresh Air. Her first book was Critical Care, and during what she calls her past life, she received a PhD in English from the University of Chicago. She lectures nationally and internationally on issues related to nursing, health care, and end of life. About the Moderator: Neal Bisno is International Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), uniting over 2 million healthcare, public, and property services workers across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Prior to his election as International EVP in 2016, Neal served as President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the state’s largest union of nurses and healthcare workers. Neal has helped lead successful campaigns to organize thousands of nurses and healthcare workers, ban mandatory overtime for Pennsylvania’s healthcare workers, and expand Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Neal lives with his partner on Pittsburgh’s North Side. About Your Visit: The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.