Narrative medicine, an interdisciplinary field that brings together the studies of literature and medicine, offers both a way of understanding patient identity and a method for developing a clinician’s responsiveness to patients. While recognizing the value of narrative medicine in clinical encounters, including the ethical aspects of patient discourse, Tara Flanagan examines the limits of narrative practices for patients with cognitive and verbal deficits. In Narrative Medicine in Hospice Care: Identity, Practice, and Ethics through the Lens of Paul Ricoeur, Flanagan contends that the models of selfhood and care found in the work of Ricoeur can offer a framework for clinicians and caregivers regardless of the verbal and cognitive capabilities of a patient at the end of life. In particular, Ricoeur’s concept of patient identity connects with the narrative method of life review in hospice and offers an opportunity to address the religious and spiritual dimensions of the patient experience.

The use of narrative methods has a long history in palliative care, pioneered by Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement, Narrative and Stories in Health Care provides a vibrant, multidisciplinary examination of work with narrative and stories in contemporary health and social care, with a focus on the care of people who are ill and dying. It animates the academic literature with provocative 'real-world' examples from international contributors, including palliative care service users and those working in the social and human sciences, medicine, theology, and the creative arts. Narrative and Stories in Health Care addresses and clarifies core issues: What is a narrative? What is a story? What are some of the main methods and models that can be used and for what purposes? What practical and ethical dilemmas can the methods entail in work with illness, death and dying? As well as highlighting the power of stories to create new possibilities, the book also acknowledges the conceptual, methodological and ethnical problems and challenges inherent in narrative work. As the hospice and palliative care movement evolves to meet the challenges of 21st century health care, this fascinating book highlights how narratives and stories can be attended to in ways that are productive, ethical, and caring.

Narrative medicine emerged in response to a commodified health care system that places corporate and bureaucratic concerns over the needs of the patient. This book provides an introduction to the principles of narrative medicine and guidance for implementing narrative methods.

"A ... memoir about how the essential parts of one young woman's early life--her mother's work as a surgeon and her spiritual practice--led her to become a doctor and to question the premise that medicine exists to prolong life at all costs."--

This comprehensive revision of the invaluable reference presents a rigorous survey of pain and palliative care phenomena across the lifespan and across disciplines. Grounded in the biopsychosocial viewpoint of its predecessor, it offers up-to-date understanding of assessments and interventions for pain, the communication of pain, common pain conditions and their mechanisms, and research and policy issues. In keeping with the current public attention to painkiller use and misuse, contributors discuss a full range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to pain relief and management. And palliative care is given expanded coverage, with chapters on interventive, ethical, and spiritual concerns. · Pain, intercultural communication, and narrative medicine. · Assessment of pain: tools, challenges, and special populations. · Persistent pain in the older adult: practical considerations for evaluation and management. · Acute to chronic pain: transition in the post-surgical patient. · Evidence-based pharmacotherapy of chronic pain. · Complementary and integrative health in chronic pain and palliative care. · The patient’s perspective of chronic pain. · Disparities in pain and pain care. This mix of evolving and emerging topics makes the Second Edition of the Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care a necessity for health practitioners specializing in pain management or palliative care, clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals, and clinicians and administrators in long-term care and hospice.

In this thorough revision, updating, and expansion of his great 2007 book, Empathy in Patient Care, Professor Hojat offers all of us in healthcare education an uplifting magnum opus that is sure to greatly enhance how we conceptualize, measure, and teach the central professional virtue of empathy. Hojat’s new Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care provides students and professionals across healthcare with the most scientifically rigorous, conceptually vivid, and comprehensive statement ever produced proving once and for all what we all know intuitively – empathy is healing both for those who receive it and for those who give it. This book is filled with great science, great philosophizing, and great ‘how to’ approaches to education. Every student and practitioner in healthcare today should read this and keep it by the bedside in a permanent place of honor. Stephen G Post, Ph.D., Professor of Preventive Medicine, and Founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University Dr. Hojat has provided, in this new edition, a definitive resource for the evolving area of empathy research and education. For those engaged in medical student or resident education and especially for those dedicated to efforts to improve the patient experience, this book is a treasure trove of primary work in the field of empathy. Leonard H. Calabrese, D.O., Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University The latest edition of Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care grounds the clinical art of empathic caring in the newly recognized contributions of brain imagery and social cognitive neuroscience. Furthermore, it updates the accumulating empirical evidence for the clinical effects of empathy that has been facilitated by the widespread use of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, a generative contribution to clinical research by this book’s author. In addition, the book is so coherently structured that each chapter contributes to an overall understanding of empathy, while also covering its subject so well that it could stand alone. This makes Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care an excellent choice for clinicians, students, educators and researchers. Herbert Adler, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior,Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University It is my firm belief that empathy as defined and assessed by Dr. Hojat in his seminal book has far reaching implications for other areas of human interaction including business, management, government, economics, and international relations. Amir H. Mehryar, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Population Studies, Institute for Research and Training in Management and Planning, Tehran, Iran

'The Textbook of Palliative Care Communication' is the authoritative text on communication in palliative care. Uniquely developed by an interdisciplinary editorial team to address an array of providers including physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains, it unites clinicians and academic researchers interested in the study of communication.

As humanitarian aid organizations have evolved, there is a growing recognition that incorporating palliative care into aid efforts is an essential part of providing the best care possible. A Field Manual for Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crises represents the first-ever effort at educating and providing guidance for clinicians not formally trained in palliative care in how to incorporate its principles into their work in crisis situations. Written by a team of international experts, this pocket-sized manual identifies the needs of people affected by natural hazards, political or ethnic conflict, epidemics of life-threatening infections, and other humanitarian crises. Later chapters explore topics including pain management, skin conditions, non-communicable diseases, palliative care emergencies, the law and ethics of end of life care, and more. Concise and highly accessible, this manual is an ideal educational tool pre-deployment or during fieldwork for clinicians involved in planning and providing humanitarian aid, local care providers, and medical trainees.

Palliative and end of life care are concerned with the physical, social, psychological and spiritual care of people with advanced disease. It currently has a poorly developed research base, but the need to improve this is increasingly recognised. One of the reasons for the lack of research - and the variable quality of the research that is undertaken - is the difficulty of conducting research with very ill and bereaved people. Standard and well-established research methods may need to be adapted to work in this context. This means that existing research methods textbooks may be of limited use to palliative care practitioners seeking to do research for the first time, or to more experienced researchers wanting to apply their knowledge in palliative care settings. This research methods textbook is the first to be written specifically for palliative care. It has been edited by four experienced palliative care academics with acknowledged expertise and international reputations in this field. It encompasses methods used in both clinical and health services research in palliative care, with sections on clinical, epidemiological, survey and qualitative research, as well as a section covering skills needed in any research project. Each chapter provides readers with an up to date overview of the research method in question, an understanding of its applicability to palliative care and of the particular challenges of using it in this setting. It is essential reading for all palliative care researchers.

Palliative medicine was first recognised as a specialist field in 1987. One hundred years earlier, London based doctor William Munk published a treatise on 'easeful death' that mapped out the principles of practical, spiritual, and medical support at the end of life. In the intervening years a major process of development took place which led to innovative services, new approaches to the study and relief of pain and other symptoms, a growing interest in 'holistic' care, and a desire to gain more recognition for care at the end of life. This book traces the history of palliative medicine, from its nineteenth-century origins, to its modern practice around the world. It takes in the changing meaning of 'euthanasia', assesses the role of religious and philanthropic organisations in the creation of homes for the dying, and explores how twentieth-century doctors created a special focus on end of life care. To Comfort Always traces the rise of clinical studies, academic programmes and international collaborations to promote palliative care. It examines the continuing need to support development with evidence, and assesses the dilemmas of unequal access to services and pain relieving drugs, as well as the periodic accusations of creeping medicalization within the field. This is the first history of its kind, and the breadth of information it encompasses makes it an essential resource for those interested in the long-term achievements of palliative medicine as well as the challenges that remain.