Imperative 2 To meet the real needs of the dying. What dying patients need first and foremost is a safe environment. They need to know that our care for them is not contingent upon something they do or do not do. They need to know that we care about them as persons worthy of dignity […]
safe … accompany … presence … Read More »
The artist as a young woman turns her face toward the viewer and surprises us with her lively eyes, which make her appear to be responding to a call. Her right eye, different in color and without a pupil, suggests the words of M0digliani: “Because with one eye you see the world outside, and with
a reality of profound tension … Read More »
Imperative 3 To guide but never lead. We have great knowledge and must use it wisely. We are called by the dying to be their guides through this final passage. It is the height of arrogance to believe we can somehow lead them through the end of life, step-by-step. We are simply to be guides
to guide … to accompany … Read More »
Imperative 4 To be honest. Nothing can shatter a relationship more quickly and more completely than dishonesty. To be sure, we do not hit people over the head with the truth they are not prepared to hear. That would be cruel. We must rigorously avoid a self-serving deflection of crucial issues and truths in order
honest, gentle and kind … Read More »
How do you manage everything? How can you be one person in the face of all of your achievements and goals, being a manager and a mother and running your father’s foundation? You gave the answer: being one. I am not different when I am here, or when I am a mother, when I am
approaching reality with humility … Read More »
… cor ad cor loquitur … listen with your heart … pdf file outlines fundamental approach to communicating serious news … slides • Start with the patient’s agenda • Track both the emotional and cognitive • Stay with the patient and move the conversation forward one step at a time • Articulate empathy explicitly • Talk about what you
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“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road;
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
A subitanea morte, libera nos, Domine … “from a death that is sudden and unprepared for, deliver us, o Lord.” To be taken away suddenly, without being able to make oneself ready, without having had time to prepare – this is the supreme danger from which man wants to be saved. He wants to be
Imperative 6 To be joyful. Laughter and joy can be a more effective medicine than anything we hope to produce in a laboratory. The joy of medicine was given to me by my patients. I will always remember the day I sat in the bedroom of a hospice patient who was surrounded by his immediate
