If it doesn't work, stop it: Don't just stand there, hold my hand

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7446.1015-c

BMJ 2004;328:1015-1016 (24 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7446.1015-c

Letter

If it doesn't work, stop it

Don't just stand there, hold my hand

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—"The aphorism `Don't just do something, stand there!'seems ludicrous."¹

Does it?

Reading this reminded me of something a student wrote in a reflectivepiece at the end of the University of Bristol's fifth year preregistrationhouse officer shadowing course. She was confronted on a wardround for senior house officers with an extremely unwell, verybreathless man. The house officer and senior house officer spranginto action. She looked at him and realised he was dying, anddying soon.

While everyone else examined him, gave him oxygen, and arrangedinvestigations she looked on and wondered if she would be capableof such actions when she qualified. She also described feelingpowerless, and that there was nothing she could do. She wrote:"And then the words of a particular palliative care consultantcame into my mind: `If there is nothing else to do, you canhold their hand.' . . . [Full text of this article]

Karen Forbes, consultant and Macmillan senior lecturer in palliative medicine

United Bristol Healthcare Trust, Bristol BS2 8ED k.forbes@bristol.ac.uk