Aid-in-Dying: A Daughter’s Challenging New Nursing Role

A father’s request.

The March Reflections essay in AJN is by a nurse whose terminally ill 92-year-old father asked her to help him legally end his own life under the requirements of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. The short essay is intimate, informative, and honest. Here’s a brief excerpt from near the end:

Although I miss my father terribly, I have no regrets. Mostly, I am thankful for his strength and courage, his clear-mindedness, and his willingness to work with me to repair our relationship. I am also thankful that nursing prepared me for the role of nurse advocate and taught me how to ‘be with’ a person at the end of life, even when that person was my father.

By Barbara Hranilovich for AJN.

Death With Dignity laws.

It can’t be easy for a nurse, whose job usually focuses on restoring patients’ health and preserving their lives, to help a family member die in this way. Nor is the process without challenges: the requirements of Death with Dignity laws are rigorous, layered with checks and double-checks to guard against potential abuses. […]

Medical Marijuana: A Nurse’s Primer

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, is an oncology nurse navigator and writes a monthly post for this blog.

Illustration by J Paradisi. Illustration by J Paradisi.

Since I wrote “Marijuana Legalization and Potential Workplace Pitfalls for Nurses Who Partake” in July 2014, a few things have changed. For one, Measure 91 passed in Oregon, making it the third state to legalize recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana, however, has been legal since 1998 in Oregon, currently one of 23 states nationwide.

Also, when I wrote the earlier post, I was an infusion nurse—now, as an oncology nurse navigator, I’m asked about medical marijuana often, and I need to know the answers, as do all nurses practicing in states with legalized medical marijuana. Nurses working in oncology, emergency departments, pain management, infusion clinics, and pediatrics have high exposure to patients with medical marijuana cards.

By ‘knowledge,’ I don’t mean knowing everything, but knowing where to find what you need to know. In Oregon, for example, information about medical marijuana is found at the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). The Web site includes qualifying diagnoses, a downloadable handbook, an application packet with instructions, and a list of approved dispensaries. While retail issues surrounding recreational marijuana are still being sorted out, medical dispensaries in Oregon sell recreational marijuana to clients aged 21 and older.

Patients using medical marijuana […]

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