Finding Hope in Uncertainty and Whole Family Care

This November, Children’s National Hospital presented the 31st annual Joshua Stouck Memorial Grand Rounds, discussing uncertainty in health care and the continuum of hope. The Stouck family, including parents Mindy Buren and Jerry Stouck, generously established the Joshua Stouck Critical Care Endowment, along with the yearly symposium in memory of their son, Joshua, who passed at 4 years old.

 

Dr. Lynn Wein Bush, faculty member of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Genetics and Genomics division, led the talk. She recognized the providers’ role in caring for the full family impacted by a chronic diagnosis or loss, quoting the Stoucks’ former pediatrician, Dr. Paul Peebles.

 

“We’re not just baby doctors,” Dr. Peebles said at the time of Joshua’s passing. “We’re parent doctors.”

 

Audience members, including the Stouck family, echoed the value of providers acknowledging the vast unfamiliarity families experience when navigating a complex illness. They also stressed the importance of health care providers accessing care themselves to heal from loss.

 

“The lives in the continuum [connected to Joshua] go on and on,” Dr. Wein Bush said. “There are many wounds to heal and [ways we can] improve the experience for everyone.”

 

The discussion focused on guiding family members and caregivers with honest information, including aspects of uncertainty, without sacrificing hope.

 

“Hope isn’t a bad word,”Dr. Wein Bush said. “You don’t want to have false hope, but I’m here to say we all need hope to get to the next day, to get to the next moment.”

 

The full symposium recap is available to watch under Archived Lectures.