By Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

TheBlameGameIllustrationThe Reflections essay in the April issue of AJN is called “The Blame Game.” It’s by a nurse who finds herself visiting a family member in the hospital during her shift break at the same hospital. In her distress, she gets little relief or reassurance from the harshly judgmental nurse she encounters.

The vividly told episode raises the question: can the act of casting judgment on another person diminish our ability to see these people as complete human beings, whatever their failings? And also this question: what is the proper attitude of nurses toward their patients?

Please give it a read and see what you think. Is this nurse’s attitude an exception, or more common than it should be, as the author suggests? Here’s a brief quote from near the end:

There seems to be a dangerous epidemic of clinicians blaming patients for their health issues. As a nursing student, I saw more and more of this attitude. The health care profession seems to have evolved a culture of accusation and attack against patients, a group we should be empowering and protecting.

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