Care Work

By Margaret J. Krauss

Published November 28, 2018 at 5:09 AM EST

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Hospice nurse Theresa Brown checks a patient’s pulse during a recent home visit. Previously she worked in a hospital, where she says, “I felt like I never saw people at their best.”";s:3:

Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA

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Hospice nurse Theresa Brown checks a patient’s pulse during a recent home visit. Previously she worked in a hospital, where she says, “I felt like I never saw people at their best.”";s:3:

Margaret J. Krauss / 90.5 WESA

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Rabbi Seth Adelson leads a weekday morning service at Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill. His days start early and end late. “I counsel people on all manners of of things that come up in people's lives,” he says.";s:

Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

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Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

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Therapist Kim Hardin in her office in McCandless. Even though she hears painful things from clients’ lives, she says, “Being a part of knowing that healing does occur ... even after the most horrid things have happened to them is amazing.”";s:3:

Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

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Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

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Jean Thompson Bird leads students in a rendition of “Dirt Made My Lunch” at the Carnegie Mellon University Children’s School. “When I hear the children singing the things that I have taught them, that's probably one of my greatest joys.”";s:3:"uri

Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

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Kevin C. Brown / 90.5 WESA

Keeping young children safe and curious, caring for aging parents or counseling a friend suffering from heartbreak are not easy tasks. Done off-the-clock, we don’t not always think of these things as work. In this episode of 90.5 WESA’s series, Still Working, we follow four people for whom caring is part of the job description.

People at every stage of life depend on care from professionals. Jean Thompson Bird, a teacher at the Carnegie Mellon University Children’s School, introduces children to the wider world. Theresa Brown, a hospice nurse at Allegheny Health Network, works to keep people comfortable at the end of their lives. Rabbi Seth Adelson at Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill cares for the more than 600 families in his congregation, many of whom are struggling in the wake of the Tree of Life shooting last month. And Kim Hardin, a therapist in McCandless, helps clients process trauma.

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Still Working is our podcast about how work shapes who we are and how we see the world.