You drive down a busy expressway amidst thousands of other vehicles and a billboard jumps out at you. In the font of confidence, it reads, “The first step in fighting cancer should be a second opinion.”
The billboard informs you of the location of the nearest Cancer Treatment Center of America (CTCA), “only” about 130 miles from the billboard.
When …
Second opinions: A chance to listen and teach
Have you ever discharged a patient from the hospital and had a gnawing feeling that maybe you could have done more to educate the patient about their disease, medications, and plan of care?
Probably so. A recent survey published in the Archives of Internal Medicine tells us that this feeling is based in reality (I’m guessing that you already knew this) and that you are not alone.
The …
Educate the patient about their disease and discharge plan
The Annals of Internal Medicine had a perspective article by palliative medicine communication gurus Drs. Tim Quill, Bob Arnold, and Tony Back which details an approach to discussing treatment preferences with patients who want “everything.”
When I think of a patient requesting “everything,” I typically think of it as a response to a physician who offers the patient the choice of “doing nothing” if the patient’s heart should stop or …
How to treat patients who want everything
Dr. Desiree Pardi was the palliative care medical director at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She died of metastatic breast cancer in 2009 at the age of 41.
Her story provides palliative care clinicians an opportunity to reflect on how our own personal mortality interacts with our professional lives.
I did not personally know Dr. Pardi. I write this post knowing that many readers did indeed know her, some …
Palliative care physicians confronting their own mortality
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
