The first time I went to the morgue, I was 21. Still young enough to believe that love could keep a baby alive. In this episode, I share a deeply personal poem about the first death that broke me—a shaken baby, taken too soon, placed in my arms one last time before the cold took him for good. This is a story of grief, helplessness, and the unbearable weight of carrying a child into a place meant for the old. Some losses never leave you. Some names you never knew still stay with you forever.

Copyright © 2025 Kate Earley

What happens when the very thing that makes you a good nurse, your empathy, your devotion, your grief gets pathologized? In this episode, I share A Nurses Lament, a raw reflection on the emotional weight of nursing, the impossible expectations placed on healthcare workers, and the quiet suffering that comes with truly caring. When did integrity become a disorder? When did compassion become a liability? Lets talk about it ♥️

Discover the emotional burden of nursing and medicine in Season 1: The Weight We Carry from the Unspoken podcast. This season uses raw, unfiltered spoken word poetry to explore the deep impact of vicarious trauma, grief, and loss experienced by healthcare workers. Through powerful storytelling, we delve into the unseen challenges of caring deeply, bearing witness to suffering, and carrying the weight of lives lost long after the shift ends.

In this season, we unpack:

• Vicarious Trauma in Healthcare: How exposure to patient suffering leaves lasting emotional scars.

• Grief and Loss: The profound impact of loss on nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals.

• The Emotional Burden of Medicine: The ongoing struggle to process and heal from the cumulative effects of trauma.

If you’re interested in understanding the complexities of healthcare worker burnout, emotional trauma, and the journey toward healing, this season offers a unique and moving perspective.

Content Warning: This season contains themes of child abuse and death. Please listen with care.

Tune in to Unspoken and explore the heavy truths behind the healing, as we give voice to those who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.