• After portraying the role of a provider informing parents of their child’s death, I have new perspective of how challenging delivering such information could be. So a patient has just died and now you have the hardest job of all, telling the family. As a nurse I have been in the room as a provider informs a family that the patient died but never have I been the one to give the news. Everything in that moment when delivering such news matters including ;displaying empathy, being honest, body language, and even moments of silence. While portraying the role as provider delivering the news of death, I couldn’t help but think in real life how do providers not find themselves emotionally drained. The first patient is dead and in many ways by delivering to the family the news of death, the second patient dies too right in front of you. Thus,… Continue reading →

The first day of Marseille was eye opening. The story of Lewis Blackman was eye opening. I felt so angry at all the safety measures that failed for this family and at the same time I felt so sad for Lewis Blackman’s family. I have read about other tragic stories like this one but never have I had such analysis of how the “medical system” failed to protect Lewis Blackman. So often as medical professionals, we play the blame game. I really enjoyed analyzing this story as if we were detectives. From a nursing perspective, I learned that documenting is great but being assertive and going up the hierarchy of command will save a life. The nurse in the case of Lewis Blackman documented a completely different narrative than the resident but didn’t take the appropriate action, which would be to follow the chain of command or call a rapid… Continue reading →