Oncology nurse transforms into artist at night

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

It was Connor Browning’s first night at Riley Hospital for Children, just hours after being diagnosed with leukemia, when he met James Shepard.

The night-shift nurse on 5 West struck up a conversation with his 13-year-old patient and found out he loves IU football. Shepard, a graduate of rival Purdue University, is not blind to IU’s success on the football field, but he couldn’t help giving Connor a little grief.

Their bond was sealed from that moment, especially when Shepard went on to draw an IU football helmet on Connor’s door on the unit – with an added flourish – a lightly drawn P behind it as a nod to his alma mater.

Shepard has been decorating doors on 5W for a year, spreading a little joy from room to room.

Connor’s mom, Maria Browning, was so moved by the act that she reached out to a colleague within IU Health to shine a light on Shepard’s work, even as she processed the shocking news that her child has cancer.

“It is nice to have a place to go where the nurses care so much about the person and manage the diagnosis with ease and positivity,” said Browning, a clinical nutrition manager for IU Health. “I was worried the vibe of the cancer unit would be very depressing. It is the opposite.”

Shepard, a nurse since June 2024, liked to draw as a kid but has no formal art training. The door art evolved organically.

“Last Halloween, somebody left a cup of chalk markers out, and I had a little girl on the unit who loved Bluey,” he said. “I drew Bluey on her door that night, and I had a bunch of other patients who walked the halls and saw the drawing and asked me to draw on their doors.”

Since then, he estimates he has created nearly 100 drawings, ranging from superheroes to cartoons to athletic team logos and much more.

“Word spread, so I bought my own markers, and now anytime I have free time, I try to get as many done as I can,” he said. “Especially on our unit, a lot of kids are here for way longer than any other unit, sometimes months at a time … this makes them feel more comfortable.”

Shepard is not the only one on the fifth floor who creates drawings for kids. Anna Line and Janelle Morris do similar work over on the stem cell unit when time allows.

Line asked Morris one night to finish one of her drawings, and Morris was hooked.

“A parent saw me working on it, and the kids started putting in orders,” she said. “But it’s honestly so fun.”

Similar to Shepard, Morris said art has been a hobby in the past, but she’s happy to use whatever creative skills she has to bring a smile to patients and team members.

“I do a lot of Paw Patrol, princesses and dinosaurs,” she said. One little boy asked me to draw a chocolate cupcake with blue icing and orange sprinkles, then he said, ‘I want you to add two yellow sprinkles right there’ (pointing to the top of the cupcake).”

His wish was her command.

Spiderman is the most requested drawing for Shepard, but he mixes it up with all the superheroes, even SpongeBob.

When he went to nursing school, he didn’t imagine art would be part of the job, but it is all part of his passion for helping kids and families through a difficult time in their lives.

“I did a clinical day shadowing on the oncology unit, and I went home that day with certainty that this was where I needed to work,” Shepard said.

“I saw the patient interactions with the nursing team, and I’d watch the nurse walk into all these rooms with these kids she’s known for such a long time because they’ve had such extended treatment. They form bonds with patients and their families, and I knew I wanted those relationships.”

As if to illustrate that thought, Shepard was walking the unit one evening before his shift began and saw a name he recognized. He pushed open the door and said softly, “What’s up little bro? What are you doing back here?”

Later, he would return to draw Spiderman on the boy’s door.

That kind of connection and compassion is what Maria Browning, her husband, Adam, and their son, Connor, love about Riley.

“The care and comfort were just extraordinary,” she said.

Connor, diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia one month ago, was inpatient for 10 days but will be on a 2½-year treatment plan on an outpatient basis.

“It still feels surreal most days,” Browning said. “Being at Riley was like living in a little bubble where people were taking care of you, so it allowed me to process it in pieces. I didn’t have to take it all on at once.”

A diagnosis of cancer in your child is a lot to wrap your head around, she said, but she marveled at how the nurses didn’t treat him like he was sick, choosing instead to get to know who Connor is as a 13-year-old and a three-sport athlete.

“There are people up there who are some of the best humans in the world,” she said.

Connor, who is under the care of Dr. Emily Mueller, is doing school remotely and can’t participate in athletics, but he’s getting his sports fix via video games for the time being. And, of course, he’s watching IU dominate on the football field.

During their time at Riley, Browning said she noticed how anyone who walked into her son’s room was able to immediately connect with him over football, thanks to the helmet on the door.

“It was a talking point for everyone who came in,” she said. “It created a relationship right off the bat, connecting everyone to Connor and something he loved.”

Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org