A cancer patient learning to walk again finds that his relationships with his two physical therapists affect his recovery. One woman gives hope as well as instruction. He advises healers to meet their patients as equals, "to take down as many barriers as they can, give away as many distancing privileges as possible."
Friendship with patients, caregivers are taught during their professional training, is to be avoided. Yet the capacity for friendship--to be "a person who emerges in her personhood and not simply as a professional"--may be crucial to effective therapy.
Proponents of mandatory HIV testing for patients and providers may not be giving adequate attention to the problems associated with such tests: violations of confidentiality, false negatives, reduced compliance with universal precautions, and misuse of resources.
The law maintains that the choice of competent adult Witnesses not to receive blood products must be respected. Yet many care providers believe that Witnesses, when actually faced with a life-threatening emergency, want their stated choice to be overriden--which permits them to evade the spiritual consequences of their unstated preference.
Six caregivers comment on the aftermath of a patient's disabling stroke. Their remarks about the patient and his family situation reveal much about the dynamics of the hospital hierarchy--and, incidentally, the difficulty of uncovering the "facts."
Imagining a case from the viewpoint of a family member rather than of the patient redirects moral attention to issues overlooked when the patient is the focus of concern.
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