Difficult Conversations in Medicine

Difficult Conversations in Medicine

Author: Elisabeth Macdonald

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780198527749

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In all branches of medicine, effective communication between health care professionals and patients, families and carers is essential to ensure first-class treatment. Increasing public awareness of health issues and the ready availability of health information have led the public to be more widely informed about common conditions and the treatments available. Patients therefore attend a medical consultation better informed so the need for improved communication skills is even greater. Skill is communication is a matter of personal ability which varies widely between individuals in the medical profession as in any other. In response, the aim of this book is to dispel the anxieties which contribute to poor communication. This book covers ethical and legal issues, planning difficult conversations, the patient's and doctor's perspectives, issues surrounding special groups such as children and the elderly, and coversations with patients from different cultural backgrounds. Outlines of possible clinical cases posing specific problems are included with guidance on how to handle them.


Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine

Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine

Author: Robert Buckman

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780801895579

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Based on sound, proven strategies and peppered throughout with illustrative examples, Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine provides the tools and knowledge necessary to start and sustain a genuine conversation at a moment when the first thought is "I have no idea what to say now."


Mastering Communication with Seriously Ill Patients

Mastering Communication with Seriously Ill Patients

Author: Anthony Back

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-03-02

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1139477927

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Physicians who care for patients with life-threatening illnesses face daunting communication challenges. Patients and family members can react to difficult news with sadness, distress, anger, or denial. This book defines the specific communication tasks involved in talking with patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Topics include delivering bad news, transition to palliative care, discussing goals of advance-care planning and do-not-resuscitate orders, existential and spiritual issues, family conferences, medical futility, and other conflicts at the end of life. Drs Anthony Back, Robert Arnold, and James Tulsky bring together empirical research as well as their own experience to provide a roadmap through difficult conversations about life-threatening issues. The book offers both a theoretical framework and practical conversational tools that the practising physician and clinician can use to improve communication skills, increase satisfaction, and protect themselves from burnout.


Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition

Author: Joseph Grenny

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2021-10-26

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1260474194

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Keep your cool and get the results you want when faced with crucial conversations. This New York Times bestseller and business classic has been fully updated for a world where skilled communication is more important than ever. The book that revolutionized business communications has been updated for today’s workplace. Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation—especially difficult ones—leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, the book teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person. This new edition addresses issues that have arisen in recent years. You’ll learn how to: Respond when someone initiates a crucial conversation with you Identify and address the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it Communicate more effectively across digital mediums When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation poorly and suffer the consequences; or apply the lessons and strategies of Crucial Conversations and improve relationships and results. Whether they take place at work or at home, with your coworkers or your spouse, crucial conversations have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a crucial conversation again.


Difficult Conversations

Difficult Conversations

Author: Douglas Stone

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0593511697

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The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller-now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask" We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. you'll learn how to: · Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation · Start a conversation without defensiveness · Listen for the meaning of what is not said · Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations · Move from emotion to productive problem solving


How To Break Bad News

How To Break Bad News

Author: Robert Buckman

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1992-08-08

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1487592639

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For many health care professionals and social service providers, the hardest part of the job is breaking bad news. The news may be about a condition that is life-threatening (such as cancer or AIDS), disabling (such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis), or embarrassing (such as genital herpes). To date medical education has done little to train practitioners in coping with such situations. With this guide Robert Buckman and Yvonne Kason provide help. Using plain, intelligible language they outline the basic principles of breaking bad new and present a technique, or protocol, that can be easily learned. It draws on listening and interviewing skills that consider such factors as how much the patient knows and/or wants to know; how to identify the patient's agenda and understanding, and how to respond to his or her feelings about the information. They also discuss reactions of family and friends and of other members of the health care team. Based on Buckman's award-winning training videos and Kason's courses on interviewing skills for medical students, this volume is an indispensable aid for doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, social workers, and all those in related fields.


What I Say

What I Say

Author: Robert Osher

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781630916886

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Physicians of all disciplines know (or quickly learn the hard way) that effective and compassionate communication is arguably the single most important determinant of patient satisfaction. For cataract surgeons, the words said before, after, and even during the operation are often more important to the patient's happiness than the objective quality of the surgical result. What I Say: Conversations that Improve the Physician-Patient Relationship is designed to help cataract surgeons to hone their verbal interactions to be as sharp as their surgical skills. Muddled, clumsy, or impromptu explanations diminish the doctor-patient relationship and could prevent patients from receiving the surgery they need or appreciating the results they get. Knowing in advance which words to use in difficult situations is analogous to knowing how to manage a complication before it occurs. The results are inevitably better when a physician has considered every possible outcome instead of attempting to come up with exactly the right solution on the spot. Rather than figure out the right words by trial and error, however, What I Say has recommendations on exactly what to say to build strong and trusting patient relationships. Drs. Robert Osher and Jack Parker have compiled conversational scripts from Dr. Osher's 40-year career in ophthalmology, as well as contributions from over a dozen international mavens of bedside manner into a strategy guide through even the most difficult patient conversations that inevitably surround cataract surgery. Topics include: Lowering Expectations for Spectacle-Free Vision The Torn Posterior Capsule Postoperative Refractive Surprise The Dropped Nucleus The Unhappy Patient Despite a Good Result Containing examples of conversations with cataract surgery patients where informing and reassuring take top priority, What I Say: Conversations that Improve the Physician-Patient Relationship was created to aid cataract surgeons in their pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative interactions with patients. With the advice contained inside, surgeons will be able to motivate patients, calibrate expectations, and diffuse frustrations in every possible scenario.


Dying in America

Dying in America

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-03-19

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 0309303133

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For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.


The Art of Conversation in Cancer Care

The Art of Conversation in Cancer Care

Author: Richard P. McQuellon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-09-23

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0197500315

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Every day, thousands of people are diagnosed with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses. Despite the best of intentions, it is not always easy to communicate well under these circumstances or find deep empathy for something one has never experienced. When is it best to speak, and when to be silent? How can someone provide real comfort, and how can relationships with loved ones facing serious illness be enhanced in this most difficult time? Written by a psychosocial oncologist and psychologist-theologian, The Art of Conversation in Cancer Care: Lessons for Caregivers offers practical suggestions for health professionals, families, and friends about talking to one who has cancer. This revised and updated second edition is organized around the themes of mortal time and healing conversation with cancer patients and their caregivers. Mortal time is not so much a specific period, but rather, the psychological experience encountering mortality that often accompanies the diagnosis of cancer. The first section of the book articulates the many ways people experience mortal time, including a range of adaptive and less adaptive methods. Next, the basic elements of healing conversation are delineated, with an emphasis on the hope that can spring from talking with a trusted companion. Empathy, listening carefully, and responding thoughtfully and compassionately are discussed. In the final section, the authors offer guidance for caregivers. This section includes material on the risks and costs of companionship as well as personal virtues that help a person navigate the demands of mortal time with their loved one. The authors discuss resilience and the consequences of absorbing suffering including empathy shift where the cancer caregiver becomes less empathic with minor illnesses in others. They conclude with the power of healing conversation in mortal time as a source of hope. Throughout, numerous patient vignettes illustrate the art of conversation in cancer medicine.