We are often amazed by the richness of the archives here at AJN. In the April issue, we reprint an essay originally published in the February 2002 issue. “Morphine. Now.” by Peggy Vincent, touches on topics as relevant today as ever: inadequate pain relief and the costs to patients of certain nursing scope-of-practice limitations.

It’s also a story, written by a nurse, of encountering very different attitudes to human suffering in two different health care institutions after injuries sustained by her own children. There may or may not be clinical details or matters of protocol that don’t accord with every reader’s current clinical experiences, but the human interactions are as familiar as ever. Here’s a brief excerpt: […]