Crisis intervention for nurses.

Cancer diagnoses and treatments can be crisis-causing events that overwhelm the usual coping abilities of patients and their families. Oncology nurses constantly are observing and attending to patients' diverse needs, ranging from biomedical to emotional, social, and psychological. Nurses have the chance to be first responders in times of patient crises, as they are in the position to recognize the crisis, respond effectively, and transform the crisis into a pivotal learning experience. This article discusses a way to think about patient and family crises that empowers nurses to respond in a manner appropriate to the cultural context and respectful of the individual space of the patient.