Name: Meaghann Weaver, MD, MPH, FAAP (fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics)
Title: Chief, division of pediatric palliative care
Hometown: Langley, Va. (also happens to be home of the CIA)
Talk about your job and what you like best about it:
As a pediatric palliative care physician, I have the privilege of helping children and families define quality of life and partnering with children (or adolescents) and their families to strive toward "good days" even in the setting of critical or chronic illness.
The most energizing aspects of my job are that I get to care for pediatric patients with all sorts of diagnosis in all sorts of settings (their homes, the outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, rehab settings, critical care rooms, telehealth, inpatient hospice, etc.).
The most exciting part of my day is eliciting a child’s voice/preferences/perspective and helping to advocate for the child’s voice in decisional contexts. The most inspiring realities of my job are the daily graces and strengths I get to witness in my patients and their family members/communities.
There isn’t a day when I don’t get to see immense virtue/value/beauty often despite a circumstance of biomedical suffering or a really intense diagnostic reality. The diagnoses, prognosis, and locations of palliative care are varied in a way that bring a certain creative energy and collaboration across settings – no day is the same and no day is predictable.
I get to work with a truly remarkable, interdisciplinary, pediatric palliative care team consisting of two social workers, spiritual ministers/chaplains, a child life specialist, a nurse case manager, a healing touch practitioner, and a massage therapist.
It’s incredibly inspiring to witness my teammates care so beautifully for children and their families – we strive to bring justice, dignity, loving-kindness, and personalized care into our work. I could not do this work alone. I work with such an inspiring and selfless and bright group of passionate palliative folks.
Pediatric palliative care allows me to practice the science of medicine in complex symptom management and in research pursuits and the art of medicine in personalizing care at the bedside. But, ultimately, pediatric palliative care reminds me each moment of the humanistic privilege of caring well for vulnerable children while honoring their families in the context of a remarkable team.
List three things people may not know about you:
1. My parents were missionaries in Liberia, Ghana, and Kenya. Their legacy inspires much of my approach to medicine as a biomedical-psycho-social-spiritual community model of care.
2. When not at work, I am either kayaking or gardening or painting or brewing a strong cup of coffee.
3. I have tattoos that each incorporate my daughter’s name (her name is Bravery).