THERESA BROWN, RN, works as a clinical nurse in Pennsylvania and is a leading voice on health care as seen from the nurse’s point of view. Her New York Times columns appear on that paper’s opinion page. During what she calls her “past life” she taught English at Tufts University. She is a commentator in both print and broadcast national media, a regular contributor to CNN.com and the American Journal of Nursing, and the author of the book Critical Care. She is part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “The Power of Narrative” project and speaks nationally on nursing, end of life, and health care in America.