Difficult Conversations In Medicine

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.

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."

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

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.

Critical Conversations in Healthcare, Second Edition, provides scripts and scenarios to facilitate better, more effective communication in healthcare settings. Chapters feature do’s and don’ts, reflective questions, and practical tools to help you improve your on-the-job interactions. Whether you are a new nurse at the bedside or the CEO of a major healthcare facility, this fully revised second edition will show you how to: · Work with frustrated families, angry physicians, and uncooperative colleagues · Deal with gossip, harassment, and other tough topics · Successfully address workloads, management styles, and other tricky subjects · Improve the patient experience · Overcome conversation traps

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.

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.

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.