Find Helen
Website: https://pinnacledoula.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-dunkle-msn-rn-bcFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PinnacleDoula
A Luxury and a Privilege with Helen Dunkle, RN
Helen Dunkle, RN spent more than forty years at the bedside. She started in labor and delivery, crying through every birth, and she ended up in hospice, sitting with families through the last breath. Somewhere along the way, death stopped being the thing she feared. It became sacred.
In this gathering we talk about what changes when a nurse learns to set the clinical checklist down and lean into humanity. We talk about tea, gentle hands, why calling 911 can rob someone of the death they wanted, and why dying at home is a luxury and a privilege. Helen also opens up about the grief that cracked her open at twenty-three, red lipstick, and the Reiki work that surprised her clinical mind.
This one stayed with me. I think it will stay with you too.
About Helen
Helen Dunkle, RN, is the founder of Pinnacle Doula Services in Easton, Pennsylvania. She is a registered nurse with more than four decades of clinical experience, a certified end-of-life and elder care doula, and a Reiki practitioner. Her work grew out of hospice, home health, and healthcare consulting. She walks beside families through serious illness, caregiving, grief, and the end of life, in person and virtually.
00:00 Meet Helen Dunkel
01:11 From Birth to Hospice
03:08 Crying and Presence
05:05 Cup of Tea Care
07:50 Supporting Caregivers
09:46 Calming Bedside Panic
13:24 Hospice Bridge Role1
4:42 Medication Myths and Comfort
17:26 Preparing for Breathing Changes18:45 Why Not Call 911
20:53 After Death in the ER
21:40 ED Reality Check
22:16 Sacred Home Death Care
23:10 Time and Legal Windows
24:36 Nurse to Doula Shift
28:33 Grandmother’s Parting Smile
30:45 Reiki as a Porta
l33:35 Energy Clearing Stories
38:27 What Nurses Aren’t Taught
40:32 Presence in Hospice Rooms
43:15 Closing and Where to Find Her
Take good care of yourself. And if there's something you are dying to ask, I'm right here at christy@christybraun.com.