End-of-Life Discussions and the Uneasy Role of Nurses

Amanda Anderson, BSN, RN, CCRN, is a critical care nurse in New York City and enrolled in the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing/Baruch College of Public Affairs dual master’s degree program in nursing administration and public administration. She is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week, working on a variety of projects. Her personal blog is called This Nurse Wonders.

Evelyn Simak/ via Wikimedia Commons Evelyn Simak/ via Wikimedia Commons

Nurse and writer Theresa Brown wrote a piece for this past Sunday’s New York Times on the dilemmas physicians face when their patients want to stop aggressive treatment (the latest installment of Brown’s quarterly column, What I’m Reading, is in the September issue of AJN [paywall]).

Brown’s Times column talks about physicians who have trouble letting patients go and instead push for more unnecessary and often unwanted treatment. She describes a case in which—after palliative care has been decided upon by the patient’s family members, the palliative care team, and even the heartbroken oncologist—the patient’s primary care physician intervenes and pushes for still more futile treatment. (Much of the article delves into the broader issue of palliative care and the benefits it has for patients in many stages of chronic illness.)

Have you ever […]

Return on Investment: A Nurse’s Mother Makes Her Wishes Clear

By Margaret Gallagher, BSN, RN. Margaret is a cardiovascular nurse currently working in Georgia. This is her first post for this blog.

Fly Away / jenny.nash712, via Flickr

My parents believed it was their obligation to educate their children. My sister and I both walked out with a college diploma and no debt. Susan went to a state university for her pharmacy degree, but I fell in love with a private nursing school. So my mother spent her inheritance on her own alma mater’s archrival because it was where I wanted to go. Mom got what she paid for, however, as I graduated with a BSN that has done more than just keep the roof over my head.

Shortly after I passed my boards, I planned a trip to visit my parents. I got report for my last shift, then walked in on a shouting match. My patient lay comatose between his two adult sons. Awareness of my presence brought a thick silence, followed by the younger son muttering an “excuse me” as he bulldozed his way out. After a pause, the remaining son searched my face as he began to speak.

“The doctors just told us today that Dad’s never going to get better than this. They asked us how far […]

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