美国国家公共电台 NPR Morphine, And A Side Of Grief Counseling: Nursing Students Learn How To Handle Death

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The medical profession is one that mandates¹ hands-on training. Doctors and nurses need to experience everything from cradle to grave while they're in school. But deathbed education often gets short shrift. As Blake Farmer of member station WPLN reports, some nursing programs are attempting to make end-of-life education more of a priority. And just a note - this story includes the simulated sounds of dying.

BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE²: There's a sound near the end. Some call it the death rattle³. Nursing professor Sara Camp has pretty well perfected it.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHOKING)

FARMER: People stop swallowing. The lungs fill up. There can be moaning.

SARA CAMP: So you get all that noise. And that's really distressing⁴ for family members.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOANING)

FARMER: Camp and other instructors⁵ at Nashville's Belmont University are gurgling into microphones in a dark closet. In real time, the sound comes out of lifelike robots in hospital beds on the other side of the wall. The instructors watch video monitors of the students responding as teachers control the stats for the robots' breathing, pulse and blood pressure. Other than administering morphine, Camp says there's no exact prescription⁶ for nursing students to follow.

CAMP: In this one, they have to focus on communication when there's not that much to do. And it challenges them.

FARMER: In response to surveys showing death anxiety among young nurses, Belmont started hiring actors to make these end-of-life interactions more realistic. Vickie Bailey plays a grieving daughter. There are family dynamics⁷ for nurses to navigate⁸, explaining to Bailey's character how her mom signed a Do Not Resuscitate⁹ order.

VICKIE BAILEY: No cancer - didn't want it to come back.

FARMER: The student, Sara Lindsay, sits on the bedside and puts a hand on Bailey and warns the end is near.

SARA LINDSAY: So now would be a good time if you have prayers or anything that you'd want to say.

FARMER: The monitors stop beeping. Everyone sits in silence. Half a dozen beds are going at the same time in the simulation lab. All the students gather to debrief¹⁰ afterward¹¹. Zacnite Vargas says she second-guessed herself.

ZACNITE VARGAS: Should I say she's dying, she's dead or she's passed? I don't know, like, how to be, like, straightforward¹² with it.

CAMP: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

FARMER: A recent academic review of nursing textbooks found most gloss¹³ over this standard part of the job. And researchers say more than a quarter of nursing students never treat a dying patient. That's prompted a new trade group to offer mid-career education on end-of-life care. Some schools, like Belmont, have reworked their curriculum. Camp tells the students, many just weeks away from their first job, to be cautious while also showing compassion¹⁴ to families.

CAMP: They may not remember what you say, but they'll remember how they feel because you were there.

FARMER: It's important work that Camp says more students should rehearse. For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.

1 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

4 distressing   

a.使人痛苦的

参考例句：

• All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
• It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。

5 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

6 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

7 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

8 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

9 resuscitate   

v.使复活，使苏醒

参考例句：

• A policeman and then a paramedic tried to resuscitate her.一名警察和一位护理人员先后试图救活她。
• As instructed by Rinpoche,we got the doctors to resuscitate him.遵照仁波切的指示，我们找来医生帮他进行急救。

10 debrief   

v.向…询问情况，听取汇报

参考例句：

• The men have been debriefed by British and Saudi officials.英国和沙特阿拉伯的官员听取了他们的情况汇报。
• He went to Rio after the CIA had debriefed him.他向中央情报局汇报完任务执行情况后就去了里约热内卢。

11 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

12 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

13 gloss   

n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰

参考例句：

• John tried in vain to gloss over his faults.约翰极力想掩饰自己的缺点，但是没有用。
• She rubbed up the silver plates to a high gloss.她把银盘擦得很亮。

14 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。