In Margaret Edson’s play Wit, Edson examines the treatment that Vivian Bearing, a patient with stage four ovarian cancer, receives from her doctors and from her nurse. The play exposes the callousness and high-handedness of Drs. Kelekian and Posner, who coerce Vivian into a brutal course of chemotherapy that holds no hope of curing her illness. They refuse to moderate the course despite her struggle with its terrible side effects, and they seem largely unsympathetic to her suffering, both physical and emotional. If it weren’t for Vivian’s nurse, Susie Monahan, whose attention to Vivian’s needs makes her last months bearable, Vivian would be alone and at the mercy of the cold hospital machine. But Susie’s efforts to advocate for Vivian go only so far—the doctors do not moderate Vivian’s treatment, despite Susie’s pleas, and Dr. Kelekian ignores Susie’s request for a patient controlled morphine drip as Vivian is dying. Instead, he orders a large dose of morphine that effectively sends Vivian to her “rest” within twelve hours of administration. In other areas, however, Susie has more success—providing company and emotional support, attending to Vivian’s physical needs, communicating Vivian’s needs to her doctors, helping Vivian decide her code status should her heart fail, and defending that status when the hospital initiates resuscitation.
Consider this question for your research paper: Can effective nursing compensate for deficits in doctor care?

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