It is not the easiest opening line, but they count on compassion and honesty to get through it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they need a little time. Sometimes they just need you to be there and not say anything, and we're there for that, too. But as much support as the patients receive, their families sometimes need it more. Things are being done for them, to them, with them, and it's the family that sits back and watches and they have all this time to worry.
Education is a significant aspect of cancer treatment.
This aids not only the patient, but also the family. From there, a nurse's main jobs are to hang the drugs and keep their patients' spirits up any way they can. I think the kids like it because then they don't feel so abnormal. The irrepressibility of the nurses rubs off on the patients, who in turn keep the nurses charged up with their positive attitudes. On a Monday morning in August, a young boy sat in his wheelchair in the hallway of Children's Hospital, head bare and wearing a surgical mask.