Health knowledge made personal
 This week in theNY Times Health Blo g, oncology nurse Theresa Brown has a compelling first-person account of moral distress from being foprced to provide inappropriately aggressive treatment."Suffering can be part of healing, and nurses bear witness to constant suffering in the hospital, but this patient’s suffering seemed pointless and cruel. . . . With her incontinence and already vulnerable skin, the patient was at risk for recurrent infections that would further debilitate her and increase her physical discomfort. As her disease gre w in her lungs, her respiratory status would become more and more compromised until she was gasping for air. This patient, who was visibly suffering, whohad very little real hope of living for too much longer, also was receiving very expensive health care." "[T]his tableau offers a snapshot of some of the most pressing ethical issues plaguing American health care. Should patients receive expensive treatments with little hope of efficacy just because they ask for them?"  |
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