Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- 1 TAKING YOUR SKILLS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
- 2 GETTING A GOOD START
- 3 TALKING ABOUT SERIOUS NEWS
- 4 DISCUSSING EVIDENCE FOR MAKING TREATMENT DECISIONS
- 5 DISCUSSING PROGNOSIS
- 6 BETWEEN THE BIG EVENTS
- 7 CONDUCTING A FAMILY CONFERENCE
- 8 DEALING WITH CONFLICTS
- 9 TRANSITIONS TO END-OF-LIFE CARE
- 10 TALKING ABOUT DYING
- 11 CULTIVATING YOUR SKILLS
- APPENDIX A THE ROADMAPS IN OUTLINE FORM
- APPENDIX B ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INDEX
11 - CULTIVATING YOUR SKILLS
Beyond the roadmaps
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- 1 TAKING YOUR SKILLS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
- 2 GETTING A GOOD START
- 3 TALKING ABOUT SERIOUS NEWS
- 4 DISCUSSING EVIDENCE FOR MAKING TREATMENT DECISIONS
- 5 DISCUSSING PROGNOSIS
- 6 BETWEEN THE BIG EVENTS
- 7 CONDUCTING A FAMILY CONFERENCE
- 8 DEALING WITH CONFLICTS
- 9 TRANSITIONS TO END-OF-LIFE CARE
- 10 TALKING ABOUT DYING
- 11 CULTIVATING YOUR SKILLS
- APPENDIX A THE ROADMAPS IN OUTLINE FORM
- APPENDIX B ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INDEX
Summary
In this book, we've used a strategy for improving your communication that is based on a series of roadmaps for critical communication tasks. Our strategy emphasizes the process of communication, and the backand- forth interaction that results in the best mutual understanding between patient and physician. If you have read this far, you must be seriously motivated to do better. And so in this chapter, we want to let you in on a couple of secrets that will make you more successful as a learner and communicator.
Draw on your stories: what makes your work rewarding?
Being a physician who deals with serious illness is hard enough that everyone who stays in it has some very personal reasons. These reasons, we find, usually take the form of stories - a story about how you made a difference, about what you found rewarding, about the change you wanted to make in the world. Every day, you are writing these stories, and within them, you can find a way to remind yourself about what part of yourself you want to bring forward. Last week, Tony saw a young woman with metastatic colon cancer who is 47, about the same age as my mother when she died of myelodysplasia. My patient often tells me about her children, and for me, talking to her reminds me that part of my work is a legacy to my own mother.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mastering Communication with Seriously Ill PatientsBalancing Honesty with Empathy and Hope, pp. 137 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009