National Nurses United

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir By Roz Chast Bloomsbury, 2014 Ok, we must confess. First off, this book, which is a book unlike any we've ever seen, is not specifically about nursing, medicine, or healthcare. But it is such an unconventional, funny read that grap- ples so honestly with the tremendous difficulties of caring for aging parents; the fear, outrageous expense, and indignities of assisted liv- ing and nursing homes; the coverage gaps in our health insurance for seniors; the frailties of life; and even dysfunctional family dynamics that registered nurses everywhere will be sure to identify with Roz Chast, the author, both as health professionals and as sons and daughters. Chast, a longtime cartoonist for the New Yorker mag- azine, basically drew the last years of her parents' life. As experts on the human condition, nurses will appreciate the many brutally hon- est and laugh-out-loud observations on life and death that Chast makes in her drawings. As we start the book, George and Elizabeth Chast, both in their 90s, are finally approaching the point where they can no longer safe- ly take care of themselves in the Brooklyn apartment they have lived in for almost a half century. Then, as these stories often go, domi- neering and stubborn Elizabeth has a bad fall while climbing a step- stool. By some miracle, she doesn't actually break anything, but the episode leads to a deterioration in her health and an eventual diag- nosis of diverticulitis. Meanwhile, the illness and change in living circumstances puts George's growing dementia and paranoia into sharper relief. After another year of multiple falls by Elizabeth, whom George is not strong enough to lift, the two finally agree to tour assisted living facilities. After one depressing, exhausting visit, Chast is in despair. "Of all the stressful days I'd had with them since my mother's fall off the lad- der, this one had been the worst, even worse than when she was hos- pitalized," writes Chast. "At least then there were people around—doctors, nurses—who seemed to know what they were doing. Professionals in the land of the ailing. Now I felt like it was just me, my mom, and my dad. And none of us had a clue." It's a sobering reminder to nurses about their critical, expert role in guid- ing and directing care, and how woefully inadequate our current sys- tem is for supporting families through relatives' most advanced years. Chast's parents finally move to The Place, an assisted living home. George passes away within the year, and Elizabeth is alone, her health still going steadily downhill. Chast struggles to help her mother through many health situations: whether to get a colostomy for her fistula; going on antidepressants; accepting her inconti- nence; refusing to eat and losing 15 pounds; starting hospice care; hiring round-the-clock nursing care. "We were blowing through my parents' scrimpings at breakneck speed: about $14,000 a month, none of which was covered by insurance." Just as she had come to terms with the idea that her mother was nearing the end of life, one day she visits to find her mother sitting up, fully dressed, eating a tuna sandwich with the private nurse, Goodie. "Where, in the five Stages of Death, is EAT TUNA SANDWICH?!?!?!? I had sort of adjusted to the idea that she was dying, and this was throwing me off." Nurses everywhere can surely relate. Elizabeth rallies for almost another year, then gradually deterio- rates again to the point where she mostly sleeps, wakes up to drink Ensure and get her diaper changed, then goes back to sleep. She finally passes away one night, and what Chast realizes she really must come to terms with is that she will never have the relationship with her mother that she wished she had. And that's life. —Lucia Hwang The Death Class: A True Story About Life By Erika Hayasaki Simon & Schuster, 2014 More than others in our society, registered nurses are intimately familiar with death. So it makes perfect sense that the protagonist of Erika Hayasaki's engrossing book, a woman who not only teaches a college course about death but seeks to face and understand death in all its forms, is an RN. A psych nurse, no less! For more than a decade, Dr. Norma Bowe, RN has been teaching what she calls a "health" class at Kean University in New Jersey. Officially called "Death in Perspective" but known among the stu- dent body simply as "The Death Class," Bowe explains everything we know about death, from the various biological stages of a natural death to Erik Erikson's theory about the eight stages of the human life cycle. She takes her students to visit cemeteries, morgues, and funeral homes. But most importantly, she recognizes that many of her students are already dealing with or have experienced death in 20 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 4 PRECEDING PAGE: STEVECOLEIMAGES | ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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