KU Med School

decision making … principles & process …

principles …  Standard of Care … Know your medical facts – diagnosis – prognosis – treatment. Get second opinion … go to the literature.   Substituted judgment … “If for whatever reason you are unable to make your own medical decisions … Who should make them for you?”. Put yourself in the patient’s place – […]

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anger … blame or need?

“The ability to interact effectively with  angry  patients is a  skill  that is often  learned with  experience and  is extremely useful in both transforming the patients’ reaction into a more creative emotion and  in developing a therapeutic relationship … Almost always, anger will resolve if the patient is given time, respect, clear information and consistency

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practice does not make perfect …

… perfect practice makes perfect … “Élite performers, researchers say, must engage in “deliberate practice”—sustained, mindful efforts to develop the full range of abilities that success requires. You have to work at what you’re not good at. In theory, people can do this themselves. But most people do not know where to start or how

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the illusions of psychiatry …

Marcia Angell summarizes the ‘medicalization’ of psychiatry and its support by the pharmaceutical industry. There are many lessons here for palliative care as both a discipline and in its practice. “In short, a powerful quartet of voices came together during the 1980’s eager to inform the public that mental disorders were brain diseases. Pharmaceutical companies

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