Amanda Dean, RN
Amanda Dean is a palliative care nurse.
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Latest articles
Conditions and diseases

A physician I follow on social media is an incredibly talented artist. He turns medical scenarios into cartoon sketches, as if they belong in a Sunday newspaper instead of on a telephone screen. One of his recent renderings depicted the…
A physician I follow on social media is an incredibly talented artist. He turns medical scenarios into cartoon sketches, as if they belong in a Sunday newspaper instead of on a telephone screen.
One of his recent renderings depicted the typical ICU patient: intubated, sedated, and surrounded by machines. Standing beside the hospital bed were two individuals with captions over their heads saying, “Look at all of this! This is torture! …
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Moral distress is the wound behind bedside care
Conditions and diseases

I walked onto my small unit a few minutes before 7 a.m., nurses huddled around one elderly gentleman. A cacophony of alarm bells and call lights went unanswered as the unit's three overnight staff members attempted to keep him in…
I walked onto my small unit a few minutes before 7 a.m., nurses huddled around one elderly gentleman. A cacophony of alarm bells and call lights went unanswered as the unit’s three overnight staff members attempted to keep him in bed. He voiced his disagreement loudly while climbing over the rails meant to protect his safety. Though he was strong, he was unsteady. Exasperated, the night nurse showed me her …
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Workplace violence against nurses: a crisis of systemic failure
Conditions and diseases

We ran as fast as we could. I glanced up occasionally at the nurse straddling my patient, her blonde waves obscuring her face as she furiously attempted to restart a non-beating heart. We pushed the hospital bed down hallways and…
We ran as fast as we could. I glanced up occasionally at the nurse straddling my patient, her blonde waves obscuring her face as she furiously attempted to restart a non-beating heart. We pushed the hospital bed down hallways and around corners, narrowly missing people-filled stretchers lining the Emergency Department. I stood in the back while the experts took over. If she was ready to leave this world, I wanted …
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A nurse’s view on the broken health care system
Conditions and diseases

I sat on a cylindrical stool, eyes bleary from the early hour. Navy scrubs freshly pressed, my nursing school patch tacked to my left shoulder. Would anyone notice I used hot glue and whipstitches? I remember the sound my clipboard…
I sat on a cylindrical stool, eyes bleary from the early hour. Navy scrubs freshly pressed, my nursing school patch tacked to my left shoulder. Would anyone notice I used hot glue and whipstitches?
I remember the sound my clipboard made as I attached a fresh piece of paper. The whoosh was faint and mimicked the flip-flap of wings attached to butterflies whirring around in my belly. I waited eagerly for …
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Nurses, stop eating your young: a call for change
Physician voices

Recently a measure was proposed to allow APRNs full practice authority in the VA health care system. With this measure, the embattled VA hopes to help optimize access to health care for our veterans. A measure to help with the…
Recently a measure was proposed to allow APRNs full practice authority in the VA health care system. With this measure, the embattled VA hopes to help optimize access to health care for our veterans. A measure to help with the firestorm of problems we witnessed unravel at the Phoenix VA system two years ago. Sounds great, right?
Nothing is ever that simple in American medicine. The professional organizations are, once again, …
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Who cares about our turf wars? Patients don’t.
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