The Ethical Use of our Therapeutic Connections with Patients’ Families

“What would you do, doctor?” The family had been explicit in wanting straightforward communication about their child, whose neurological disease had progressed to the point where she was continually seizing, despite every medication the physicians had tried. The seizures were in turn damaging her brain, such that she was minimally responsive to stimuli and was not expected to regain significant awareness of her surroundings.

I held my breath as I anticipated the doctor’s reply. She had spent many hours with this patient and family, and had built trust with the parents.

“As a physician . . . I would transition my child to comfort care and ultimately let her go. But as a mother . . . I would struggle to do this.”

The patient’s mom nodded tearfully. The doctor had given an honest reply, and had still ultimately left the choice to the parents.

I took care of this patient in her final few days of life. The parents were heartbroken but also clear in their decision. We walked them through each step, and made sure they felt supported to the best of our ability, down to their very last goodbye with their child.

******

There is power in the medication and therapies we apply. […]

2025-12-18T10:39:59-05:00December 18th, 2025|Ethics, family, family experience, narratives, nursing roles, nursing stories|1 Comment
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In Times of Overwhelm as a Nurse and Citizen, Begin with One Intentional Act at a Time

Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN

With the recent devastation and loss around our local Los Angeles wildfires as well as our country’s political disarray, one of the most difficult things about trying to remain empathetic, engaged, and informed as an individual and a nurse has been a sense of utter overwhelmedness.

I think most nurses are both empathetic and action-oriented, traits which can be helpful—but also sometimes crippling when we see needs for help and advocacy everywhere and don’t know where to start. Any action feels like such a miniscule drop in the bucket.

I was carrying this emotional, mental, and spiritual heaviness into work with me a couple of days ago. I sat down to get report on my patient assignment. My patient was so sick, so complicated; she’d been teetering between life and death in recent days. Her parents had been on a roller coaster of the worst kind. ‘Two weeks into this hospitalization, are we still holding onto hope for recovery? Are we gathering relatives to say goodbye?’

I knew I was walking into a space that was very loaded for the parents. They had seen many nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors come through their doors. For as long as they had been in our unit, […]

2025-03-03T14:13:18-05:00March 3rd, 2025|family experience, Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing stories, pediatrics|0 Comments
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The Pitfalls of Being the ‘Nice’ Patient: A Nurse’s Perspective

Image Brent Keane/via Pexels

I have often heard health care professionals in various environments say, “If you’re nice to the nurses and doctors who take care of you, you’ll get better care.” As a bedside nurse myself, I understand the sentiment. No busy health care worker loves being met with antagonism or pressing demands that don’t strike us as critically urgent.

But when my husband and I both became patients with serious illnesses last year, we learned the clinical pitfalls of being the nice patients. I am left wondering how patients should be expected or permitted to advocate for their own care without worrying that they will be frowned upon or brushed off because they’re perceived as “difficult.”

First cautionary tale.

In early 2022, I discovered a small lump under my right breast that I initially wrote off as a cyst. Surely, I told myself, as a woman in her mid-40s with no risk factors for breast cancer, this had to be benign. A screening mammogram in May 2022 gave me an all-clear, and I went on my way.

But by November, I knew the lump had grown. I reached out to my PCP to ask for a diagnostic mammogram, and he emailed back a casual reassurance. “I know you’re worried, but […]

2024-02-07T16:57:09-05:00February 6th, 2024|Nursing, nursing stories, patient experience, Patients|15 Comments
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The Face of Burnout in Nursing: My Personal Story and Lessons Learned

Woman looking at ocean at sunset Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

Two-and-a-half years ago, I experienced severe burnout in my role as a night shift charge nurse in a cardiovascular ICU. This blog post shares my personal story, highlighting the common ingredients of burnout and the challenges I faced. Through this experience, I learned valuable lessons that can benefit both nurses and the health care industry as a whole.

Where it All Began

Transitioning from a clinical nurse educator to a night shift charge nurse in a new cardiovascular ICU was an exciting opportunity for me. However, it soon became overwhelming due to various factors. These included a surgeon I didn’t see eye-to-eye with, moral and ethical dilemmas in patient care, staffing challenges, and a hostile work environment created by lateral violence from coworkers.

Strained to the Breaking Point

As my anxiety grew, I struggled to meet expectations each night. While prioritizing patient care and my night shift team, I feared for our patients’ well-being. Frequently, we were overloaded with acute post-cardiothoracic surgery patients. Despite my efforts to manage admissions responsibly, I faced constant pressure. Doubts crept in, and I lost trust in myself and my ability to provide safe care.

The emotional toll […]

2023-07-13T11:32:42-04:00July 13th, 2023|career, Nursing, nursing career, nursing stories, patient safety|4 Comments
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Just One Braid: The Power of Small Gestures to Restore Patient Dignity

Have you ever found yourself walking around your unit, overwhelmed by the prospect of managing your ever-growing workload? It sometimes feels like a never-ending cycle of assessments, medications, admissions, and discharges. I believe I’m not the only nurse who has experienced this frustration.

It is difficult to admit that, when COVID-19 entered our hospital doors, these thoughts consumed me. We witnessed the first casualties—not just of lives, but also of hope and intimacy—as we struggled to provide care and overcome our own anxieties amidst a scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Over time, we all learned a great deal about adapting to and managing a pandemic, and I have become more aware of my role within our flawed health care system. Focusing on my own fears and needs was valuable, of course, but these years opened my eyes to the injustices patients face. A significant proportion of the lives lost from COVID-19 due to ill-prepared infrastructure were from vulnerable communities. These realities transformed my perception of these injustices from distant awareness to concrete urgency.

Braiding a patient’s hair, restoring a sense of self.

The question of injustice brings to mind a recent encounter with a patient that deeply impacted me. This particular patient was young […]

2023-05-25T12:20:32-04:00May 25th, 2023|Nursing, nursing stories, patient experience|1 Comment
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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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