Grand Rounds: Dr. Bearing

She wants to be recognized as a doctor by virtually everybody, and she does not care about the essence of every visitation. The play uses a number of characters who have different emotional and intelligence orientations to make the protagonist, Vivian, realise that she has a negative character and gives her an emotional role model in Susie.

At the opening of the play, we learn that Vivian Bearing has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. As she was chatting with a nurse about her illness, she realized that death could be here sooner rather than later. Vivian starts looking back on her life, and what she wishes she could have changed. As a college professor she took up studying and analyzing plays, particularly John Donne, and doesn’t seem to care all that much about her students. As the play goes on, kindness starts to become an attribute that Vivian craves more and more.

She informs the audience that she’s been given a limited amount of time to tell her story, a fact which leads her to believe that she will most likely die before the end of the play. Before her hospitalization, she was Professor bearing, a teacher and scholar specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Vivian takes the audience to various scenes in the past and present that showed her achievements in Scholarship and shows what happens to her as she goes through Chemotherapy for 8 months. Over the course of the play the audience gets a chance to see Vivian’s treatment for her cancer. As she goes through the treatments she takes the audience back twenty years with an encounter with her graduate school professor E.M. Ashford, after which she decides that nothing will stop her from becoming a top scholar and that the area she chose to study will be the most challenging , the poetry of John Donne. She also recalls her life in the classroom where she was known as a demanding teacher of literature. As the chemotherapy weakens Vivian and the doctors seem to take less notice of her pain, she comes to rely on her nurse, Susie who sees her suffering and treats her with kindness. She helps Vivian decide on a “Do Not Resuscitate.” As she dies, having learned much about life, Vivian is at peace with her herself and her

Patients seek medical attention for preventative measures, as well as, diagnostic measures. Patients must have a trusting rapport with their collaborative medical team, as the nurses and the doctors are the people who they trust their lives with. Patients do not always present to hospitals, urgent cares, walk-in clinics, or even doctor’s offices only when they are sick; patients visit to ensure their good health will continue, treatment regimens are of benefit, changes that may be needed in regimen. When someone thinks of a patient they may think of some of these characteristics: illness, disease, hospital, medications, health, and prevention.

The play W;t by Margaret Edson is an account of a powerful and intelligent woman named Vivian Bearing battling a tragic disease. Vivian has been diagnosed with stage-four metastic ovarian cancer. Her treatment is a long and arduous process that takes place at the University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her primary doctor, Dr. Harvey Kelekian, and his assistant, Dr. Jason Posner, are conducting an experiment on her. They are using new treatment on her to evolve their research. Literary terms are employed throughout the play for the audience to sympathize with Vivian’s journey of suffering, loneliness, and introspection. Vivian takes the audience on an odyssey, allowing them to experience her battle with life and death.

In Margaret Edson’s play, W;t, tells the story of Vivian’s experience with her cancer treatment. Through her treatment, Vivian recognizes her humanity and her lack of understanding life and death. By recognizing that being incredibly smart was not the answer to everything, Vivian looks back on her life and is able to reflect on her character. Edson’s use of aside, flashback, exposition, foreshadow, irony and foil allows Vivian to explore different themes. Through the use of these dramatic devices, Edson is able to convey themes of language, death and humanity.

The film WIT, produced by Simon Bosanquet, clearly defines poor bedside manner in all levels of medicine, from the radiologist who performed the x-ray to the physicians in charge of the patient’s care. The film is based on a seventeenth century poet professor, Vivian Bearing, who gets diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer that has already metastasized. Professor Bearing goes through intense series of experimental chemotherapy agents that are detrimental to her health, yet everyone in the medical team seems to ask the question, “how are you feeling today?” In reality no one seems to really show true interest to what she is going through. The film portrays a lack of empathy for Professor Bearing, giving a sense of loneliness and hopelessness. The professors’ rights seem to be taken from her and the medical professional fail to treat her with the dignity and respect she deserves.

Although most of the medical staff in the movie seems to perceive Dr. Bearing as either an experiment or just another patient, there is one person who sees her as a human being. This person is Susie Monahan, Dr. Bearing’s nurse. Susie is there for Dr. Bearing during almost everything and represents the “caring professional”. Susie is a shoulder for Dr. Bearing to cry on, she is a teacher and explains information that Dr. Kalekian and his fellows cannot seem to put into terms that a patient can actually understand, and Susie is Dr. Bearing’s advocate and truly shows compassion and caring. At the end of the film, Dr. Bearing dies and Jason calls a code blue unknowing that her wishes were do not resuscitate. Susie is there, advocating for Dr. Bearing and making sure she dies with dignity the way she wanted it. Jason needed Dr. Bearing to live to help his research and completely lost sight of the humanity involved when caring for a dying patient.

Although Vivian has used her intellect and her dry wit as a shield to carry her through life, these are of little value in the face of death. She sees her reliance to concepts and her apathy to others mirrored in the actions of Jason Posher an ambitious clinical fellow working under Dr. Kelekian. He comes in and out of the movie and seems to treat Vivian as “un-human.” Throughout the whole movie he asks her “how are you feeling today Vivian,” but the way he says it is so unfeeling and cold. At the end of the movie when she is actually dead he asks, it just shows how much doctors really do not have any attachment what so ever to patients in today’s medical model.

Vivian’s physical suffering is caused by her illness, which slowly deteriorates her identity. In W;t, Vivian’s physical character is enhanced by her power through Language and it’s discourse. As time progresses, cancer slowly cause’s her to suffer physically, and therefore inverts her powerful identity. On page 25, Vivian’s body is clinically deconstructed, the

Hospitals are one of the many organizations that must comply with regulations to keep patients and staff safe and as well as maintain the quality of care. Ideally, a good care system for patients includes medical professionals as well as friends and family to compliment each other in providing for patient needs. Because patients require care from medical professions in hospitals, there are provisions that the hospital must follow.

For the most part, hospitals are places where one comes for healing and it is place where our clients should feel safe and away from harm. Nurses have an important role as a patient advocate and are to provide all clients with safe, compassionate, and quality care at all times. Nonetheless, the hospital can also be a dangerous place for inpatients. It is a foreign environment to clients and there may be alterations in their medical condition in regards to their physical and/or mental status. With this said, there is a need to improve upon how we care for our clients, especially those who are at most risk for various incidents.

One of the key elements in healthcare is the response of a patient and their experience in receiving care. The relationship between a nurse and patient can bring about a positive or negative response. Understanding the analytical components of this relationship is a essential aspect of training nurses and progressing in professional development. In interviewing Katsia Rene and hearing about her experience before and after her surgery, there is justification in what it means to be taken care of, by healthcare professionals, in a positive environment.

Effective communication in the healthcare setting improves recovery rates and reduces pain and complication rates. (Wilkinson et al, 2003). Many complaints to the NHS are attributed to poor communication. Effective communication is reliant on the nurse working in partnership with the patient. It is essential that the nurse establishes a rapport and most of this will be achieved through the use of facial expressions. In my practice, it is important that develop a therapeutic relationship with the patients so that they can be able to put their trust in me. The therapeutic relationship is solely to meet the needs of the patient. In this relationship, there is a rapport established from a sense of mutual understanding and trust. To build a good nurse-patient relationship, I would have to show qualities of empathy, caring, sincerity and trustworthiness. During practice, if I am approaching a patient and the patient looks anxious, I should approach with empathy.