JOAN CAIN, MS, FNP-BC, ACHPN
Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner
Medical University of South Carolina Hospital
While caring for a chronically ill patient, Joan Cain got to know her well. Instead of a hug, she asked Joan to lightly tap foreheads before she left the room. As her illness progressed, she simply pointed to her forehead each time Joan headed out.
“She was just so weak, it became a ritual,” Joan recalled. “It became quite impactful, especially as she was coming to the end of life. It was one of the last things we did.”
Moments like this flash through her mind as she reflects on a more than 40-year nursing career. Cain’s grandmother was a nurse, and her patient care stories prompted Cain to pursue the only profession she ever considered.
After serving patients in general medicine, urology, child and adolescent psychiatry and geriatrics, Cain advanced to nursing home administration. Preferring patient care over paperwork, she enrolled in a master’s degree program and became a family nurse practitioner.
“I wanted to get back to the bedside,” she said. “I feel that’s what I’m meant to do.”
After serving as an FNP caring for patients in an emergency room, at an HIV/AIDS clinic and at a private practice in New York, she moved to South Carolina and joined MUSC in Palliative care. For the last 10 years, she’s served the adult inpatient population at MUSC Charleston.
“I’m here to support patients and families when they’re most vulnerable,” she said. “Giving them some comfort, peace and help with symptoms is just so rewarding.”
