TO THE EDITOR:

I really enjoyed the article “Ethical Caregiving in Hard Cases” by Dr. Cooper¹ in the January issue. I am a Geriatric NP working in two facilities that are gated and manage dementia patients with such difficult behaviors that they cannot live in any less-restrictive environment. My challenges involve dealing with family members who have completely unrealistic expectations regarding the prognosis of their loved one’s disease process. The article gave me some good tips on how to better verbalize the burden vs benefit of some treatments with family members. This continues to be one of my greatest challenges.

Laurie Walsh, GNP