Letter to a Congressman

Historically, breast-cancer surgery involves among the highest rates of postoperative pain, nausea, and vomiting of all types of surgery (Pierce, 2003). Yet in this time of managed care, HMOs, and merger-and-acquisition activity in the health-care industry, the rush to control costs has developed a life of its own. In recent years, breast-cancer patients have increasingly faced the all-too-real possibility of having to undergo what has been called the "drive-through mastectomy" (Hampshire, 2001).

In the early 1990s, outpatient breast-cancer procedures accounted for up to 2% of all complete mastectomies nationwide; however, by 1996, fully 22% of all such procedures were outpatient in (for example) Colorado, 8% in Connecti

. . .
he physicians, hospital administrators, or insurance salesmen--who are placed in the position of having to ask patients only minutes after they have undergone significant surgical procedures whether they are ready to leave the hospital (Hampshire, 2001). Nowhere is expert nursing care more vital than in the postoperative phase of treatment of breast-cancer patients, who as a group are at risk for multiple physical, sexual, and psychological morbidities (e.g., Postoperative, 1999; Yurick, Farrar, & Anderson, 2000) and whose postoperative program must be individuated depending on whether they receive chemotherapy, radiation treatment, and/or physical therapy. Registered nurses are uniquely positioned to identify patients' needs and communicate them to physicians as appropriate and to effectively "manage the care of patients with catheters or devices for analgesia to alleviate acute postsurgical pain, pathological pain or chronic pain" pursuant to doctors' orders" (ANA, 1991). Finances have trimmed patient access to traditional health care and the special benefits that nursing expertise can supply. The fact of downsizing RNs off of hospital floors speaks for itself as far as patient care is concerned. Research shows that low nurse
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Kovner Gergen, Protection Act, Cancer Society--up, Farrar Anderson, Connecticut Jersey, Nurses Association, Finance Committee, Retrieved June, Board Directors, September Trends, breast cancer, hampshire 2001, retrieved june, breast-cancer patients, hospital stays, insurance companies, hospital care, protection act 2003, 14 2004, patient care, protection act, retrieved june 14, kovner gergen 1998, june 14 2004, insurance companies cover,
Approximate Word count = 1395
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Letter to a Congressman