The Antidote To Suffering

An indispensable guide to reducing the suffering―of patients and caregivers alike―and to improving healthcare delivery for all In our efforts to treat patients, cure illness, and manage institutions, healthcare professionals too often overlook the fundamental purpose everyone in the industry shares: to alleviate suffering. Press Ganey's Chief Nursing Officer, Christina Dempsey, has worked everywhere in healthcare, from the ward floor to the hospital boardroom. She has also experienced the system as a patient and as a family member of a critically ill patient. In The Antidote to Suffering, this 30-year healthcare veteran and patient-experience thought leader argues that the key to improving healthcare is to reduce the suffering--physical, psychological, and emotional--of patients and caregivers alike through Compassionate Connected CareTM. Drawing on her 360-degree perspective, Dempsey offers a comprehensive, detailed, evidence-based plan that addresses the clinical, operational, cultural, and behavioral dimensions of care that every patient and caregiver experiences, in every setting. When suffering decreases, Dempsey argues, outcomes improve for patients and those who care for them. A virtuous cycle takes hold, leading to increases in morale, loyalty, and productivity and results in a culture that drives quality, safety, and value. It paves the path for creating a new national healthcare culture--one that values compassion, fosters efficiency, and drives innovation The Antidote to Suffering is the first book to explore the pervasiveness of suffering in our healthcare system, and to provide the strategies and tools to: * Identify and measure suffering throughout your organization * Create a system in which every clinical response is informed by compassion * Operationalize staff behavior to promote meaning and purpose * Increase productivity by building a culture of collaboration Reducing human suffering isn't just a moral imperative for healthcare providers. It's a practical way to improve organizations and fix our broken system--without sacrificing the respect, dignity, and compassion we all deserve.

An indispensable guide to reducing the suffering―of patients and caregivers alike―and to improving healthcare delivery for all In our efforts to treat patients, cure illness, and manage institutions, healthcare professionals too often overlook the fundamental purpose everyone in the industry shares: to alleviate suffering. Press Ganey’s Chief Nursing Officer, Christina Dempsey, has worked everywhere in healthcare, from the ward floor to the hospital boardroom. She has also experienced the system as a patient and as a family member of a critically ill patient. In The Antidote to Suffering, this 30-year healthcare veteran and patient-experience thought leader argues that the key to improving healthcare is to reduce the suffering—physical, psychological, and emotional—of patients and caregivers alike through Compassionate Connected CareTM. Drawing on her 360-degree perspective, Dempsey offers a comprehensive, detailed, evidence-based plan that addresses the clinical, operational, cultural, and behavioral dimensions of care that every patient and caregiver experiences, in every setting. When suffering decreases, Dempsey argues, outcomes improve for patients and those who care for them. A virtuous cycle takes hold, leading to increases in morale, loyalty, and productivity and results in a culture that drives quality, safety, and value. It paves the path for creating a new national healthcare culture—one that values compassion, fosters efficiency, and drives innovation The Antidote to Suffering is the first book to explore the pervasiveness of suffering in our healthcare system, and to provide the strategies and tools to: * Identify and measure suffering throughout your organization * Create a system in which every clinical response is informed by compassion * Operationalize staff behavior to promote meaning and purpose * Increase productivity by building a culture of collaboration Reducing human suffering isn’t just a moral imperative for healthcare providers. It’s a practical way to improve organizations and fix our broken system—without sacrificing the respect, dignity, and compassion we all deserve.

The Antidote is a wry, witty travelogue that turns decades of self-help advice on its head. In it, Guardian journalist Oliver Burkeman chronicles a series of journeys by people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. Whether philosophers, experimental psychologists, New Age dreamers or hard-headed business consultants, they have in common a hunch about human psychology. They believe that in our personal lives and in the world at large, our constant fixation on eliminating or avoiding the negative-uncertainty, unhappiness, failure-is what causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. He argues there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves coming face to face with the things we spend our lives trying to avoid, to even embrace them. This is the "backwards law": The more we're willing to embrace what we think of as negative, the happier and more successful we'll become. We may need to completely rethink our attitudes toward such things as failure, uncertainty, disorder, insecurity, and death.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.

It’s widely accepted that Transcendental Meditation (TM) can create peace for the individual, but can it create peace in society as a whole? And if it can, what could possibly be the mechanism? In An Antidote to Violence Barry Spivack and Patricia Saunders examine the peer-reviewed research and suggest that TM can influence the collective consciousness of a society which leads to a decrease in negative social trends, such as a decline in war fatalities, and to an increase in cooperation between nations. Weaving together psychology, sociology, philosophy, statistics, politics, physics and meditation, An Antidote to Violence provides evidence that we have the knowledge to reduce all kinds of violence in society.

Inspired by true events, The Way of Being shows the journey of a young boy who goes into the world for the first time. In this narrative non-fiction novel, a young boy Joshua through dialogue with his father Elohim learns how to be and exist in the world. Joshua lives in a future dystopian reality where suffering permeates the nature of all beings. In the darkness, Joshua lives, but he is forever searching for the light. The light which is hidden in the most important questions of human nature. What is fear? How to act? Is there free will? What is love, reality, and death? Joshua will discover the answers to all of these questions. But in the end, Joshua will discover the answer to the most important question of being human, and that is the true meaning of life.

Chronic pain is not a life sentence If you are one of the 100 million people who suffer from chronic pain, you may be feeling hopeless and helpless, relying on endless medications that don't work, feeling worse and worse. But there is hope -- and help. The innovative program at the acclaimed Las Vegas Recovery Center, at which Dr. Mel Pohl is Medical Director, has helped thousands of sufferers to reduce chronic pain without the use of painkillers. The Pain Antidote shares this program's concrete tools and strategies, offering: Cutting-edge research on how pain affects your brain How your emotions affect your experience of pain A comprehensive program, including a four-week Jump Start plan Pain-reducing gentle exercises and health-supporting foods And much more.

Meditation is the key to meaningful Buddhist practice, but establishing a solid foundation requires skill and sustained effort. In simple and inviting language, this book shows how to develop a successful meditation practice. In Tibetan Buddhism, developing a consistent and sustained meditation practice is the first step toward discerning the true nature of reality as taught by the Buddha. Lama Dudjom Dorjee encapsulates the Buddha's teaching in terms that are accessible and encouraging for beginning meditators, covering topics from establishing a proper meditation posture to realizing the luminous and spacious qualities of the mind. Chapters discuss •The life of the Buddha •The first turning of the wheel of dharma •The four noble truths and the eightfold path •Proper meditation posture •The nine stages of shamatha, or resting the mind •Common obstacles to shamatha and their antidotes •Benefits of developing shamatha •The subsequent stages of practice, including insight/vipashyana meditation and mahamudra