Communication in Palliative Care
January 13, 2018
Oxford Medicine is publishing a selection of articles to convey the importance of communication in effective palliative care, and encourage an open dialogue on the subject of death and dying, the first, a reading list details the importance of communication in palliative care.
“Communicating with children when a parent is dying” by Cynthia W. Moore and Paula K. Rauch from the Oxford Textbook Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care (2017)
This chapter provides suggestions for clinicians on supporting parents’ open communication with their children, drawing on the authors’ extensive clinical experience of providing parent guidance to patients.
“Discontinuation of Life-Sustaining Therapies” by Kathy Plakovic from the Clinical Pocket Guide to Advance Practice Palliative Nursing (2017)
The authors outline how withholding and/or withdrawing life sustaining medicines are processes that fundamentally rest on the shared decision-making of carer, patient, and family.
“Defining a ‘good’ death” by Karen E. Steinhauser and James A. Tulsk from the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine 5th Edition (2015)
This chapter explores the reappearance within the last 40 years of the definition of a ‘good death’ in medical contexts, and what the clinical implications of using the terminology ‘good death’ may be for practitioners and patients alike.
“Truth telling and consent” by Linda L. Emanuel and Rebecca Johnson from the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine 5th Edition (2015)
This chapter focuses on the role of truth-telling in therapeutic relationships and the ways in which effective communication can maintain hopes and deliver information sufficient for informed consent at the same time in palliative care.
“Cicely Saunders and her early associates: A kaleidoscope of effects” by David Clark from To Comfort Always: A History of Palliative Medicine Since the Nineteenth Century (2016)
David Clark looks at the specific contributions made by Dr Cicely Saunders and her colleagues to modern palliative care.
A version of this post was first published on the OUPblog.
