“I Still Think About Them”: Professionalism and Emotional Connection in End-of-Life Care

Maylene was a resident in my facility. She was in her late 70s, wheelchair-bound due to multiple sclerosis, and was cognitively intact. She loved the R&B music channel on her TV, and she was proud of her brightly manicured nails. With her type 2 diabetes, I checked her blood sugars four times a day, so I always noted her manicures and joked with her about an expression I had learned while living in Texas: “Nails before business.” And then one day I clocked in and came onto the floor, and she was gone.