Fixing America’s Health Care System article review Develop a Letter to the Editor responding to the article of interest. Article: https://journals.lww.
Fixing America’s Health Care System article review Develop a Letter to the Editor responding to the article of interest.
Article: https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/Fulltext/2018/1…
Below is an attachment of an example (Student’s name)
(address)
Student’s e-mail address
Feb. 2, 2010
Name of Editor
The American Journal of Nursing 7777 Pyramid Lane
Pina Colata, CA 33133
Dear Editor,
In the article titled “Whose Death Is It Anyway?”, published in the March
2014 edition of The American Journal of Nursing, Theresa Brown recounted the story of a
friend of hers faced with a patient refusing chemotherapy and a doctor refusing to let him.
The focus of her column was on a patient’s right to die in the way that reflects his or her
own values and the health care provider’s responsibility to enable that to happen.
As a student nurse, I believe that the emphasis of Mrs. Brown’s article missed an essential
aspect of the story: the enormous impact of the nurse. In this case, the nurse insisted on
remaining with the patient during the physician consultation and ensured that the patient
was placed in hospice as he wished, even though the physician would not comply with his
requests. Without the nurse functioning as a patient advocate, the patient could have easily
been manipulated into a procedure he did not want and would not have received the
services he so clearly needed.
The 1997 Woodhull study on Nursing and the Media reported that “less than 10% of
newspaper and magazine articles are related to health care, and when nurses are
discussed, they are portrayed as incidental to health care”.1 In reality, the evidence
demonstrates that nurses are essential to patients receiving high- quality care. A 2006
study of 799 nonfederal acute care general hospitals in 11 states showed that increasing
the number of RNs and LPNs as well as the number of patient care hours provided by RNs
would result in “reduced adverse outcomes by 70,000, hospital days by 4.1 million, and
deaths by 6700”.2
The ANA and other nursing organizations, along with companies such as Johnson &
Johnson, have created programs with the goal of raising the public’s awareness of the
importance of nurses. However, it is also the responsibility of each individual nurse to
highlight the significance of the care nurses provide. Mrs. Brown would have done a great
service to nurses and patients alike by championing the vital role her friend played in the
compassionate care, and advocacy of a dying patient.
1 Zerwekh,
J., & Claborn, J.C. (2006). Nursing Today: Transition and Trends. pp. 180. St. Louis,
MO: Saunders Elsevier.
2 Cherry, B., and Jacob, S. (2008). Contemporary Nursing: Issues, Trends and Management.
pp. 37. St. Louis: MO: Mosby Elsevier.
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