Ann J. Brady, MSN, RN-BC, CHPN

The wait for test results and treatment outcomes meets the criteria for a traumatic event. How do you handle a response that seems out of character?

The patient’s constant complaining and irritating personality almost overwhelmed his need for care.

The patient’s daughter had been through the discharge process before. But she struggled with accepting her recurrent feelings. The nurse did, too.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we cannot convince the patient’s family that the time for hope is gone.

The goal was to make the case for better pain management without undermining the care team.

Assessment of pain involves more than asking patients to rate their level of pain, yet often we act as if that is all that is necessary.

In a case like Susie’s, nurses wonder if there was a way to change not the outcome, but the way she died.

For the author, the life stories of patients are more like mysteries than anything. Sometimes the story she thought she knew turns out to be wrong.

How do you foster hope in cancer patients, especially when they are terminally ill? For the author, the first step is open communication.

The author describes how she learned to stop and listen and clarify when a patient asks a difficult question.