Moments in Time – Saying Yes
July 29, 2011 | 
Author
I like to pretend that I’m a photographer. It’s much easier to tell people I’m a photographer than to tell them what I really do. I’ve learned to absorb the looks of despair and the hand on the heart response when I choose to share that I’m a pediatric hospice social worker. Read the rest of this entry »
The Value of Being on the Same Page.
Communication, many of us would agree, is challenging enough but when a family is facing a life-threatening illness the challenge can become immense. I want to spotlight a recent research publication in the Journal of Palliative Medicine Read the rest of this entry »
You are the Cake: Your Slides are Simply the Frosting
I wanted to contribute to JPM by giving a teaching tool that has worked well for me. When I give talks and presentations I use PowerPoint slide decks that have very little text, little to no bullet points and then I add images and sometimes even insert videos directly into the slide. Read the rest of this entry »
Lessons From Across the Pond: England’s Approach to Improving End-of-Life Care
About half of the 16,000 complaints within the UK National Health Service (NHS) from July 2004 to July 2006 pertained to care given in acute hospitals, and within that fraction 54 percent related to end-of-life care. This may come as a surprise to many, given that the UK is the place of birth of the modern Hospice movement. However, the success of hospices had a paradoxical effect of end of life care provided in the UK hospitals. Hospices came to be seen as providing Britain’s standard of excellence for care of the dying, but this led to feelings of inadequacy in the hospital settings where most patients die Read the rest of this entry »
Congratulations: Jenny Urban and Jame Restau
Kudos to Jame Restau & Jenny Urban who did an excellent job as the lead bloggers from July 15th to 21st. Read the rest of this entry »
A Chaplain’s professional clinical point of view
Nurses always ought to be sensitive to the spiritual needs of their patients and seek out the proper people to provide the direct spiritual ministry when a spiritual need is noted. The best thing, really, is for nurses to be unafraid to ask about a patient and family’s spiritual concerns, and invite them to talk about them, and then for the nurse to professionally work with the palliative care program people directed to offer spiritual care in responding to those needs. Read the rest of this entry »
Split the Lark- Glen Campbell Shines on Road Tour Despite Alzheimer’s
Glen Campbell leaned over his blue electric guitar, plucked a few strings and made a sour face.
"Dadgum it," he said.
Campbell, 75, fiddled a few seconds longer while standing backstage Friday night ( 7-15-2011) at the IP Casino in Biloxi, Miss., and finally found a perfect D chord.
"There it is," he said, before turning on his heel and marching into the spotlight. He launched into "Gentle on My Mind" and -- without so much as clearing his throat -- nailed it. Read the rest of this entry »
You Asked Dr. Charles von Gunten, MD PhD. Here are his answers
QUESTION: As an established Palliative Care consultation service, we are facing the challenge of growing too fast! It's great to be in demand but at the same time it's a bit overwhelming. We have one full time Clinical Nurse Specialist and a 0.25 physician. We use Social Workers, Care Coordinators and chaplains connected to each floor. Can you offer any suggestions about how to manage this growth when no other resources will be made available. Read the rest of this entry »
Person Centered Care and Palliative Medicine: my love affair
My love affair with palliative care began less than a year ago, so I’m still on an (extremely rewarding) learning curve. I didn’t’ set out to get involved with palliative care, but – having stumbled onto the Wednesday evening twitter chit about hospice and palliative medicine (#hpm) –I found a group of relentlessly extraordinary people who, every day, practice, embody and give meaning to Person Centered Care ('Person' including family and community) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Celebration, Education, Non-pain symptoms, Patient Centered Care | 
Tags: comfort measures, family medicine, person centered care, tweet chats | 
2 Comments »
Do not squander your life
Spirituality is a broad term that incorporates many concepts. Specifics as well as various aspects are looked at differently though the view of health care disciplines.
Spirituality in Dictionary.com is referred to spiritual and spiritual pertains to the spirit. Spirit is defined as the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul. Additionally spirituality and religion are different, but for some people, they can be interwoven. Read the rest of this entry »
Using media advocacy to raise awareness
Many of us wonder about how to give hospice and palliative care greater visibility. One of the most productive efforts in this regard was "On Our Own Terms," a PBS Bill Moyers documentary that aired in 2000. It very sensitively explored the gap between what people say they want for end-of-life care and what they receive. Read the rest of this entry »
A Good Short Life
In case you missed this in the July 10th issue of the New York Times, here is a wonderful column by a former Times journalist about his impending death from ALS. He is speaking frankly to help others be more open to discussing death. And he does a great job of that. Enjoy!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Judy Peres and Jeanette Ross for serving as the JPM primary bloggers July 1 to 7, 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Palliative Care & Sausage Making ..AKA Healthcare Reform
The often used policy quote that one shouldn’t watch sausage making or the crafting of legislation …could easily apply to the role of palliative care in health reform. Certainly the intent of healthcare reform should be applauded… but it is interesting to watch the movement toward patient-centered care ignore decades of research and best practices developed for helping to care for people who are seriously ill and frail elders in the long-term care and palliative and hospice care fields. Read the rest of this entry »
Medical Student Reflection on Palliative Care Day
As we were meandering through the slow moving traffic and trying our best to rush to the nursing home, Nurse K had already received a phone call that the patient, Mrs. R, had died. When we arrived we could see that Mrs. R’s three daughters had already recovered from the initial shock. Instead of a sterile hand shake that I was used to, Nurse K quickly gave each one a warm embracing hug. Without putting on gloves, Nurse K arranged Mrs. R’s hair and wiped off some secretions with the bed sheet before she checked for signs of absent breathing, listened to the still heart, and checked blood pressure on the listless arm. Mrs. R was pronounced dead at 2:10pm due to cardiopulmonary arrest secondary to metastatic melanoma. Read the rest of this entry »
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