I find it very interesting that Wright and Leahey have two methods that they feel nursing can care for the family. Both are valid ways to look at a patient but depending on the scenario it may be hard to enact. Seeing the patient as the ‘affected individual’ is accurate in a lot of care examples, patients may not have involved families or ones they disagree with and prefer to be the sole manager of their care. The second method in many ways is how I as an oncology nurse treat patients and families. That they are treated together and all need care, attention and love; however, it can be hard to manage this in a difficult family. At times, patients and families are on different pathways with treatment and navigating the roadway of what the patient wants versus the family. It is hard to treat them ‘together’ because they are wanting two separate things. Caring for the whole family unit is critical but when a patient wants to quit and family wants to continue, as a nurse it is my job to listen to the patient, but it doesn’t mean that I am not showing compassion to the other opinion.
Nurisng is a profession where we are not only caring for patients we are caring for the family, friends and caregivers. However, our job is to respect the wishes of our patients and at times can be quite difficult to be everyone’s support system when two different pathways are wanted.
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