Evaluative Essay: Review Of Margaret Edson's 'Wit'

Since this study, many argue that to properly treat a patient

The novel focuses on Nao Kao and Foua Lee’s youngest daughter Lia, who is diagnosed by modern medicine with epilepsy and by holistic medicine with the spirit catches you and you fall down. Throughout the novel the Lee’s struggle to effectively communicate with many doctors, nurses and social workers due to the language barrier and cultural divide between the Hmong and the Americans. This raises the question, how important is perspective taking when deciding between modern medicines versus holistic medicine? A common theme throughout the novel is trust or lack thereof.

Her doctor collected cancerous cells and healthy cells from her cervix and gave them to the cancer researcher, George Otto Gey, who was trying to keep cells alive for more than a couple days. Henrietta endured intense radium treatments, but she still died at the age of 31, leaving her husband and five children behind. An amazing discovery was made Henrietta’s cell were immortal. Racism is prevalent in this book through the limited availability of healthcare, unethical behaviors of the doctors, and how racism affected her family. During this time, there was an extensive lack of medical care for colored people.

All nurses and healthcare professionals are obligated to help patients and to follow through on the desire to good and not harm them. The doctors and nurses in the study did not hold up their obligation to give the participants in the study the best treatment for their disease. Since penicillin was being used for the treatment of penicillin in the 1940s, the doctors and nurses should have given the participants of the study the penicillin according to the ethical principle of beneficence. Instead of giving the participants the penicillin, the doctors and nurses continued with the original ‘treatment’ even though they knew it would not cure the participants’

“It is not my intention to give away the plot; but I think I die at the end” (Edson 6). Margaret Edson, throughout her play Wit, compares ways of viewing the world through the eyes of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a middle-aged professor of seventeenth-century poetry at the university. Recently diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer, she undergoes treatment at a major research hospital and knows the prognosis is not good. Over the course of the play, Vivian takes the audience to various scenes in the past and present that illuminate her achievements in the world of scholarship and show what happens to her as she is treated with aggressive chemotherapy for eight months.

According to the Oxford American English Dictionary terminal cancer is defined as “the last stage of a disease… informal extreme usually beyond cure or alteration.” In the books The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther the main protagonists confront their own death or watch someone die from terminal cancer. Sometimes reality and fiction can be closer than what we imagine. In The Fault in Our Stars, Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster both suffer from different types of terminal cancer and in Death Be Not Proud, Johnny Gunther undergoes many surgeries to attempt to remove his brain tumor.

Human Experimentation The looming concern of human experimentation was enough to deter some individuals from seeking the medical care that they needed for their well-being. The thought that trusted medical professionals had the power to perform unethical experiments on them while they were in their care was enough to let them live with whatever ailment that they had. By not seeking out the care that they desperately needed in some cases only lead to further problems. Several doctors abused their patients' trust for their own curiosities.

They only thing they wanted was answers. It is what shapes views and ways of learning. Therefore, communication plays an important role in how culture is learned and passed on. As nurses, communication is key in having a successful interaction with patients. Many patients will only need to be listened and understood.

Finally, upon his death, readers become intertwined in Kalanithi’s decision of a Do Not Resuscitate order or resuscitation. In addition to his decision, the passage details how Kalanithi can so eloquently decipher concepts that would otherwise be foreign to the readers, such as medicine, surgery, and the simple behind-the-scenes of hospital

Davis (2017) defines accountability as being “answerable to oneself and others for one 's own actions.” This means that when a nurse engages in an activity on the job, she/he will be responsible for the outcome and might suffer negative consequences if her/his actions are careless or reflect poor judgement. Accountability provides a motivation for all professionals to perform well. Most people who are passionate about their profession have an internal desire to perform well, but accountability to one’s colleagues and patients provides an important external motivator to perform well. Nursing is unique as a profession because a nurse is in a position of authority and care over patients.

She rushed to the Gynecologist, Howard Jones. For him only tot reveal that she had a cervical tumor. In 1951, Howard and his boss, Richard Wesley Telinde, were working hard to develop and improve methods for treating cervical cancer. With insufficient methods to gather information about the cancer, a number of women were accidently diagnosed with cervical cancer. Telinde wanted to improve treatment and diagnosis of cervical cancer, so he took tissue samples from Jones’ patients.

This eventually led to a family member becoming so stressed and worn out from this ordeal that she had a stroke. The publicity could have been wonderful, but the press cared about the cells, and the cells only. The family had to protect the reputation of Henrietta as a person. They did not want her to be remembered solely for having the first immortal cells. Therefore, they did not talk to the press and kept to themselves until they were approached by the right person.

They were determined to grow the first immortal human cells. They took any cells that they could get, so TeLinde offered him a supply of cervical cancer tissue in exchange for trying to grow some cells. TeLinde began collecting samples, and some just happened to belong to Henrietta. After Jones received Henrietta’s biopsy report from the lab, he called to tell her that it was malignant. That night, she told Day to take her back to the hospital to get some medicine.

Almost every individual has had an experience where they or someone they know have battled a disease. No matter what the disease is, the patient typically is associated with negativity; however, in this memoir by Suleiki Jaouad, the author places a different view on cancer. Suleiki Jaouad developed (AML) acute myeloid leukemia, due to a bone marrow disorder, at the age of twenty two. Throughout her story, Jaouad discusses the impacts of developing cancer and how she coped with her disease. Her most precious asset was her long, wavy hair, and she knew once she began her chemotherapy treatments that she would not be able to keep her long hair.

At first, I did not like Dr. Jack McKee because he is sarcastic and void of compassion for any of his patients. However, as I watched the film, I found it to be very moving. When Dr. McKee is diagnosed with throat cancer it puts him into the shoes of being a patient and allows him to see life from a patient 's perspective. During his treatment he is treated unsympathetically by other doctors and nurses, similar to the way he treated his patients. Later he meets June, a woman with stage 4 brain cancer, who teaches him the meaning of compassion.