Awarded first place in the 2022 AJN Book of the Year Awards in both Child Health and History and Public Policy!
When a patient or family refuses treatment-maybe even lifesaving treatment-because it is contrary to their social, religious, or cultural beliefs, it can plunge healthcare providers, families, and patients into a difficult, emotionally charged conversation. Complex and diverse ethical dilemmas such as this can profoundly impact the health, welfare, and mental and emotional well-being of everyone involved. What's more, today's nurses and healthcare professionals will almost inevitably face this situation or one like it.
Against Medical Advice details many of the medical, legal, social, cultural, and religious factors associated with treatment refusals. Authors Luanne Linnard-Palmer and Ellen Christiansen prepare healthcare professionals to compassionately assess and understand people's beliefs, cultures, and philosophical perspectives. Their proven strategies and step-by-step examples guide providers to consider the patient's and family's point of view, share concerns with other healthcare team members, and negotiate the best possible outcome for all involved.
Christiansen, Ellen: - Ellen Christiansen, DNP, FNP-BC, PHNA-BC, RN, is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Dominican University of California, where she teaches Community and Public Health Nursing to first-semester senior nursing students. She is also responsible for securing interesting educational community-based placements where her students can learn about population health and make a real contribution to the health of the community. Christiansen received her baccalaureate degree in nursing from Dominican University of California. During undergraduate nursing school, she began to understand the importance of the social determinants of health, and she became passionate about social justice. She also realized that she loved working with a multicultural, underserved patient population, and she preferred doing it in a community-based setting. Accordingly, she enrolled in Samuel Merritt University and obtained her master's in nursing as a family nurse practitioner. She spent the next several years working in three rural, federally qualified community health centers on the coast of Northern California. Eventually, she attended Sonoma State University for a certification in Rural Community Clinic Management, and she became the Director of Operations for the three community clinics. Finally, having worked a total of 17 years for the community health centers, Christiansen's interest turned to nursing education, and she returned to Samuel Merritt University, where she obtained a DNP degree. Afterward, she taught part time for Samuel Merritt University but was soon hired for a full-time tenure track position at Dominican University of California, where she still teaches today as a tenured Associate Professor.
Linnard-Palmer, Luanne: - Luanne Linnard-Palmer, EdD, CPN, RN, is a Professor of Nursing at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, California, and a Pediatric Educational Consultant and Pediatric Clinical Nurse at Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She received her undergraduate nursing degree from Humboldt State University and began clinical practice in oncology. She received her master's degree from the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and her EdD at the University of San Francisco School of Education in the Department of Curriculum Development and Instructional Design. She has taught in several nursing programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and now holds tenure at Dominican University of California. She studied the topic of parental refusal of traditional medical care during her post-doctoral studies at the University of California in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, San Francisco, under the direction of Dr. Susan Kools. She completed two ethnographic studies during her post-doctoral program (2000-2003) and is writing this book as a cumulative project that represents personal clinical experiences as a pediatric oncology/hematology nurse, a nursing instructor who takes students to large urban hospitals rich with diverse populations, and an ethnoscience researcher.
