[Solved]: Cindy is a 36-year-old female with pancreatic cancer…

Cindy is a 36-year-old female with pancreatic cancer who has been hospitalized for two weeks. She has been in the intensive care unit for the past five days. Her physical deterioration and suffering have created anguish in her husband and in the health care team. The attending physician discussed with the husband the likelihood of his wife having a cardiac and/or respiratory arrest, described the actions the team would take for a full resuscitation as well as the varying levels of resuscitation approved by the hospital. The husband was asked to express his preferences regarding resuscitation. The husband initially chose the do not resuscitate status for his wife and completed all the official paperwork to implement the decision. During the next 12 hours, the husband actively solicited from nursing and medical staff their definitions of do not resuscitate. He then contacted the attending physician to rescind his decision, choosing instead to have a full resuscitation order in place. He explained his decision change as, “When I saw that the nurses and doctors did not all define resuscitation in the same way, I decided that I would not leave that in their hands. I am my wife’s husband, and I will be her husband to the end.” This new decision was enacted and over the next four days, the patient showed clear signs of dying. Her husband stayed with her in the intensive care unit and witnessed the changes in his wife’s physical appearance. He began commenting on those changes and on his wife’s obvious suffering. Within two hours of her death, the husband told the nurse that he did not want his wife to be resuscitated. This information was immediately conveyed to the health care team and a brief discussion with the physician, husband, and nurse convened to affirm his decision. Considering the information you viewed, read, and completed on communication and delivery of bad news, how might this case study have ended differently? How might the healthcare team have improved their communication to effectively address and eliminate some of the obvious barriers?