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Medical Ethics: Schwartz Center Rounds

Racism in the Chemotherapy Infusion Unit: A Nurse's Story

^aDepartment of Medical Oncology, ^bDepartment of Nursing, ^cDepartment of Social Services, and ^dDana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence: Lidia Schapira, M.D., Department of Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Gillette Center for Breast Cancer, 55 Fruit Street, YAW 9, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. Telephone: 617-726-6500; Fax: 617-724-6898; e-mail: lschapira{at}partners.org

Received September 22, 2008; accepted for publication September 30, 2008; first published online in THE ONCOLOGIST Express on November 4, 2008.

Disclosure: Employment/leadership position: None; Intellectual property rights/inventor/patent holder: None; Consultant/advisory role: Thomas Lynch, Astra Zeneca, Imclone, Genentech, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Millennium, Sanofi, Serono/Merck; Honoraria: None; Research funding/contracted research: None; Ownership interest: None; Expert testimony: None; Other: None.

The content of this article has been reviewed by independent peer reviewers to ensure that it is balanced, objective, and free from commercial bias. No financial relationships relevant to the content of this article have been disclosed by the authors, planners, independent peer reviewers, or staff managers.

Shortly before his death in 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz, a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), founded The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at MGH. The Schwartz Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing compassionate health care delivery that provides hope to the patient and support to caregivers, and encourages the healing process. The Center sponsors the Schwartz Center Rounds, a monthly multidisciplinary forum where caregivers reflect on important psychosocial issues faced by patients, their families, and their caregivers, and gain insight and support from fellow staff members.

In this article a nurse relates her experience as caregiver for a patient who made repeated racially motivated comments. She reflects on her response and the support she received from her colleagues.