PALLIATIVE NURSING NETWORK BLOG
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A Cardiac Nurse’s Regret
Yolanda has been a cardiac nurse for a long time. She works on a cardiac telemetry unit in a mid-sized hospital serving a primarily rural population. She told me about a situation that haunts her: Doing chest compressions on Margaret, a thin, frail, 74-year-old woman...
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Reflections on National Healthcare Decisions Week
It’s been unusually cold and blustery outside for days, not at all what one might expect for mid-April. The sky is a flat dark gray, sending down showers of sleet and snow, and the wind’s roaring so hard that tree branches are bending to the breaking point and birds...
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Reflections of a Surrogate Decision-Maker: National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD)
As a nurse, I’d always thought about NHDD as a useful reminder about planning for the future. For my patients, as well as for myself. But now, it reminds me of the past. You see, NHDD is when I made my husband DNR. Do Not Resuscitate. No Code. And when I did, I knew...
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How to be an effective advocate when your loved one is hospitalized
What do you do when your loved one is in the hospital, and you feel like something is wrong? Or when you wonder if a test, treatment or medication is right for him/her? Rather than worrying or getting angry, it’s important to speak up. Your knowledge of them and your...
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Palliative Care Guidelines for Oncology
In 2016, the American Society of Clinical Oncology published an update to their 2012 guideline. These recommendations integrate new evidence about palliative care provision in oncology. The summary recommendation states: “Inpatients and outpatients with advanced...
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Empathy: An Essential Aspect of Person-Centered Care
Empathy—we have an inherent sense of what it is. We can often recognize it in ourselves. And empathy is often what prompted us to the healthcare profession – our desire to help people who are hurting. Yet do we actually practice empathy when working with patients, and...
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