The American journal of nursing
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Biography Historical Article Classical Article
Forcible feeding in English prisons. 1910.
Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives for more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but they also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. ⋯ It was written by nurse and social activist Lavinia Dock, a cofounder of the Nurses Associated Alumnae (which later became the American Nurses Association) and the International Council of Nurses and a contributing editor to AJN. Dock wrote, "Among the prisoners thus cruelly treated have been several nurses." She shared physicians' outrage that the Home Office ordered the force-feeding but tried to place responsibility for the practice entirely on prison physicians. More than a century later, the force-feeding of political prisoners continues to raise ethical and legal issues within the nursing and medical communities (see "Ethical Issues for Nurses in Force-Feeding Guantánamo Bay Detainees" in this issue).
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This exploratory study addressed the research question "What are the perceptions of staff nurses regarding palliative care for hospitalized older adults?" ⋯ For many seriously ill hospitalized older patients, staff nurses can be pivotal as informed advocates for palliative care early in the course of an illness trajectory. But nurses (and other providers) often confuse palliative and hospice care; thus there is a need for increased understanding and knowledge in this area. Collaborative interdisciplinary education regarding the evolving concept of palliative care may be useful. Further research into the perceptions and experiences of staff nurses who care for hospitalized older adults is warranted.