Interview with Doug Olsen, author of “Helping Patients Who Don’t Help Themselves” (July, 2013)

Nurses often encounter patients who, despite best efforts by both the nurse and the patient, are unable to follow the treatment plan and may even pursue hurtful behaviors, like a patient with COPD who continues to smoke. Editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy speaks with the author, who is also AJN’s contributing editor for ethics, about this issue, how it can interfere with the nurse-patient relationship, and approaches nurses can take when patients do self-defeating behavior.