Patients with cancer will eventually have to cope with unique feelings of loss. The loss of their future life plans. Fernweh, a German that means farsickness, may explain those feelings.
The term noncompliant assumes in part that the patient has accepted the premise of what they are instructed to comply with.
Nursing takes courage. Sometimes that courage is needed to respond to a difficult patient or case; other times it is needed to respond to your own reactions and needs.
A reflection on how nurses guide patients and their families through the cancer journey.
How do you answer when the patient or family asks, “What is next?” More importantly, though, you need to recognize if they are asking that question, or is there something else they are really asking.
This simple framework for communicating can be adapted to fit each situation, regardless of it being a nurse-to-patient or a nurse-to-nurse setting.
Overwhelmed by her poor prognosis, a patient with a newly diagnosed advanced cancer cuts off communicating with her health care team.
Medical terminology can be a foreign language — or confusing, at the least — for many patients. Ann Brady uses a patient encounter to illustrate the potential miscommunication inherent in using “medicalese” in patient communication.
Although many physical expressions are universal, oncology nurses may be challenged to catch notice of more subtle body language from patients or a family member.
WWW is not for the world-wide web, but it is an easy way to remember the 3 w’s of communication with patients with advanced disease: wish, worry, wonder.
