If the Patient Doesn’t Understand the Treatment: New Essay by Theresa Brown

Ben’s inability to understand even the basics of his situation, combined with his lack of family support, made it seem that we were in effect imprisoning him and torturing him.

That’s an excerpt from the Reflections essay in the June issue of AJN. By Theresa Brown, a nurse who regularly writes for the New York Times “Well” blog, “Right Treatment, Right Patient?” explores the ethics and emotions involved in providing an unpleasant but potentially life-saving treatment to a patient who can’t understand what’s being done to him (click through to the PDF for the best version).

We hope you’ll read it through and let us know if you’ve ever faced a similar ethical quandary as a health care professional (or, for that matter, as a family member or patient).—JM, senior editor

2016-11-21T13:12:31-05:00June 27th, 2011|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Maybe Palliative Care SHOULD Go to the Dogs

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

Last week, we took Sam, our ailing 14-year-old Labrador Retriever, on what became his last trip to the vet. Sam had been diagnosed with bone cancer in February after we noticed the right half of his head enlarging. Because of where the tumor was, it was inoperable. We felt that at his age chemotherapy wasn’t a realistic option, and we didn’t want the last few months of his life to be bad ones.

His veterinarian, who’d treated Sam since his puppy days, supported the decision, saying she would make the same choice for her dog. And so we spent the last few months adjusting doses of steroids and pain meds to enable him to live as normally as possible. For Sam, “normal” was being able to greet all comers to our door, to be the leader on his walks, to be smack in the middle of where his family was. (If people were in the basement and on the second floor, he would lie equidistant from where everyone in the house was. If we were in the same room, he sat, front legs crossed in his “elegant dog” pose, where he could see us all.)

So last month, when we saw that he would no longer get up to greet visitors or his family; was reluctant to go on walks (he did, but with a great sigh and lots of panting after even the shortest […]

2016-11-21T13:15:45-05:00September 13th, 2010|Nursing|6 Comments
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Workplace Violence Against Nurses — Neither Inevitable Nor Acceptable

I’ve read about hospital nurses dealing with violence at work, but I always told myself that was something that happened in the emergency room or the psych ward. In oncology, I reasoned, we have relationships with our patients, and I have always felt safe with them.

So begins a harrowing—and remarkably nonjudgmental— story of a really bad day at work, written by Theresa Brown, a nurse who blogs regularly for the NY Times. (AJN will be featuring a profile of Brown in the May issue.)

Unhappy coincidence: It so happens that AJN published a Viewpoint essay on workplace violence in the March issue. Here’s how it starts:

I was working in the ED one day when a patient looked up and threatened to kill me. Grabbing my hand, he squeezed it until I thought it would break. It took several staff members to restrain him and force him to let go. I’ll never forget how he looked into my eyes and smiled as I screamed in pain.

Some of my colleagues said I should file a police report; others told me to get used to this type of behavior and toughen up. I called the police, and although they took my statement, they wouldn’t arrest the patient because he hadn’t inflicted “serious bodily injury.”

The author, Jessica Leigh, offers advice to those who have faced workplace violence as nurses, and makes several recommendations for influencing policies at your hospital or facility, as well as […]

2016-11-21T13:18:45-05:00March 17th, 2010|nursing perspective|4 Comments
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Financial Strain and Childhood Cancer: What’s Your Definition of ‘Freedom’?

By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN  

I recently read a stirring blog post in the NY Times from a fellow nurse, about a cancer patient she’d treated who was an insurance salesman but whose last months were dominated by a desperate attempt to manage his mounting medical bills, bills which left his wife with a second massive burden on top of her grief at his death.

by frozenchipmunk, via flickr

Like Theresa Brown, I am an oncology nurse. In my work in pediatric oncology, I have also seen families ravaged by cancer treatment—physically, emotionally, and economically. Young families that fight to save their children often end up bankrupt, or with a ruined marriage from the emotional strain of dealing with a loss coupled with financial strain. Financial concerns are ever present. 

Theresa’s article really hit home. I hope you take the time to read it. As I was listening to President Obama’s health care reform speech last week, I heard him mention Senator Kennedy’s experience as a parent of two children diagnosed with cancer. When it comes to the pain and suffering that children experience during treatment, the Kennedy childrens’ experience and that of children without reliable insurance were probably quite similar.

I would guess, though, that the experience was very different for the parents. […]

2016-11-21T13:22:30-05:00September 14th, 2009|health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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