The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing

The essence of nursing care continually exposes nurses to suffering.Although they bear witness to the suffering of others, their own suffering isless frequently exposed. This slim volume attempts to give voice to thesuffering that nurses witness in patients, families, colleagues, and themselves. By making this suffering visible, the authors wish to honor it and to learnfrom it. The audience includes nurses in all phases of training and practice - fromstudents to educators to clinicians - in the wide array of settings andspecialties in which nurses care for patients. The book offers nurses'colleagues in other professions - social workers, psychologists, chaplains,ethicists, and physicians - a rare window onto what it means to practicenursing. Drs. Ferrell and Coyle are also the editors of Textbook of Palliative Nursing,2nd ed (Oxford, 2006). Independently, they have worked more than 50 years inoncology nursing, caring for patients and working to improve the quality of carethat patients receive.

Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, MA is a Research Scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California Nessa Coyle, PhD, FAAN, a nurse practitioner, has worked closely with advanced cancer patients and their families for more than 25 years as a member of the Pain and Palliative Care Service of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City