Analysis and Personal Reflection of Wit (the movie)

            The “Wit” movie was an exceptionally insightful film that took an intimate look into the physical, spiritual and emotional journey of it’s main character, academic scholar Dr. Vivian Bearing.  Vivian was battling an agressive form of ovarian cancer.  Sadly she was on this journey alone, with the exception of nurse Suzie; the rest of her care team was a million miles away.  They were completely detached from the experience she was having.  The care they provided to her showed lack of empathy, respect and crossed the line to the point of being unethical.  Which lead me to my premise for this paper – the need for nurse advocacy.

The characters in the movie were very linear (with the exception of Vivian).  What I mean by this is they didn’t deviate from their personality traits.  Dr. Kelekian the well renowed research Dr. who treated Vivian like a specimen; Dr. Posner the young over achieveing detached fellow who had more respect for cancer than he did for Vivian and lastly Suzie the kind hearted nurse.  Their linear character was only surpassed by their repetitive mechanical thoughless behaviors.  You can’t help but become annoyed with the number of times staff would ask Vivian “how are you feeling?”. They would ask this when she was clearly at her lowest point and even when she was dead as she ironically predicted.

There were numerous situations that took place during the movie in which nurse Suzie who was undoubtedly kind and caring, couldv’e been a better advocate for Vivian.  When Vivian was in excruciating pain Suzie explained patient controlled analgesics to Vivian which was an appropriate recommendation.  Dr. Kelekian insistied a morphine drip without explaining or giving a choice to Vivian who was still alert and oriented at the time. She seemed to be intimatidated by the doctor’s intelligence.  Suzie however didn’t realize her own strengths exceeded those of the doctors.  She was not only intelligent, but manageed to build a honest therapuetic relationship with Vivian.  She understood Vivians need for simplicity and kindness.  She understood what was ethically correct but was afraid to address it.  As a patient advocate you have to challenge those you consider “smarter” than you because they may not know better that you.  She could have called the charge nurse, hospital administrator or even the ethics committee for that matter.  The Dr’s actions were cruel and not in the best interest of the patient so escallating the situation would have been completely appropriate.

She demonstrated this submissiveness to the doctors again when she would allow Dr. Posner to make inappropiate comments infront of Vivian.  At one point he flat out stated “bedside manner was a waste of time for researchers.” On another occassion, while performing a pelvic exam he spoke to Suzie about Vivian’s reputation as a Prof. in the third person as if she wasn’t present.   These were opportunities for her to advocate for Vivian and educate Dr. Posner by letting him know his comments and actions are inappropiate and won’t be tolerated.

The most profound scene was the end of the movie in which Dr. Posner called a code on Vivian knowing she was DNR.  This is where Suzie couldn’t take it any more and threw Dr. Posner off the bed while he performed CPR.  Nurses are patients advocates until the very end.  We are supposed to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.  In order to do this we can not feel powerless or insignificant.  If we do the patient will mirror these emotions because we are not capable of empowering them.