Question: As a professional nurse you may have encountered client situations, which may have affected you in some way. Sharing thoughts and feelings collectively can be a therapeutic experience. During the next 15 weeks we will examine feelings about death and dying.
Please take some time and respond to this question: As a professional nurse do you believe that a dying client on your acute care unit (home care environment, skilled nursing facility) is given the same level of care by the healthcare staff as a client who is acutely ill but not actively dying?

My response:  As a healthcare profession, we ensure that the client receives the adequate appropriate care if the individual is acutely ill but isn’t actively dying or is actively dying. We provide continuum of care until the end. Clients who are actively dying should receive the same care as an individual who isn’t dying. It depends on the nurses’ mindset. I’ve witnessed patients who have DNR/DNI orders and are placed at the “bottom of the barrel.” For example, there was a patient who had spinal cancer with mets which became hypotensive, labored breathing and had an active DNR/DNI order. At the end, she became priority. We treated the underlying cause not considering she was DNR/DNI. Some nurses see DNR/DNI as all care is halted. In the beginning, I had that mind frame. But as the years went on, I realized that care should be provided at all time. Sometimes it can be hectic where we are short staffed, overload of patients and care, not enough time for documentation but at the end we are responsible for our actions. Clients place their trust in us to ensure we do the right thing.