David K Wright is an assistant professor in the school of nursing, faculty of health sciences, University of Ottawa. His research program examines palliative and end-of-life care from a perspective of relational ethics. His doctoral dissertation was an ethnographic study of hospice care, focusing particulary on end-of-life delirium. Immediately prior to joining the faculty, David was a postdoctoral fellow in the biomedical ethics unit at McGill University. There, he collaborated on a study to better understand the ethics of medicalized dying across Canada, including euthanasia and assisted suicide. David holds specialty certification in hospice palliative care from the Canadian Nurses Association, having worked clinically as a palliative care nurse at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal since 2008. He currently holds a new-investigator award in nursing research from the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation in Montreal, and is also an affiliate faculty member at the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University. Together with Brandi Vanderspank-Wright, David is a newly appointed co-director of the Nursing Palliative Care Research and Education Unit at the University of Ottawa.
Selected Publications (Peer Reviewed)
Wright DK, Brajtman S, Macdonald ME. A relational ethical approach to end-of-life delirium. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 48, 191-98, 2014.
Bush S, Leonard M, Agar M, Spiller J, Hosie A, Wright DK, Meagher D, Currow D, Bruera E, Lawlor P. End-of-life delirium: issues regarding recognition, optimal management, and the role of sedation in the dying phase. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 48, 215-30j, 2014.
Wright D, and Pugnaire Gros, C. Theory inspired practice for end-of-life cancer care: An exploration of the McGill Model of Nursing, Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal. RCSIO Summer, 175 - 181, 2012.
Brajman S, Wright D, Hall P, Bush SH, Bekele E. Toward better care of delirious patients at the end of life: a pilot study of an interprofessional educational intervention. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 26, 422.425, 2012.
Brajman S, Wright D, Hogan DB, Allard P, Bruto V, Burne D, Gage L, Gagnon PR, Sadowski CA, Helsdingen S, Wilson K. Developing guidelines on the assessment and treatment of delirium in older adults at the end of life. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 14, 40-50.
Wright D, Brajtman S, and Bitzas V. (2009). Human relationships at the end-of-life: an ethical ontology for practice. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 11(4), 219-227.
Wright D, and Brajtman S. (accepted). Relational and embodied knowing: nursing ethics within the interprofessional team. Nursing Ethics.
Selected Publications (Clinical journals or Editorials)
Sadler K, Wright D. Conversation au chevret d'un mourant: "Combien de temps reste-t-il?" Perspective infirmière, 10(1), 29-31, 2013.
Wright D, Nyland A, Carnevale F, Gros C. Broken promises and the bad patient (Response to comment). Nursing Ethics, 17, 668-671, 2010.