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This is a revised and expanded edition of a classic in palliative medicine, originally published in 1991, with three added chapters and a new preface summarizing our progress in the area of pain management. The obligation of physicians to relieve human suffering stretches back into antiquity. But what exactly, is suffering? One patient with cancer of the stomach, from which he knew he would shortly die, said he was not suffering. Another, someone who had been operated on for a minor problem—in little pain and not seemingly distressed—said that even coming into the hospital had been a source of pain and suffering. With such varied responses to the problem of suffering, inevitable questions arise. Is it the doctor's responsibility to treat the disease or the patient? And what is the relationship between suffering and the goals of medicine? According to the author of this book, these are crucial questions, but ones that have unfortunately remained only queries void of adequate solutions. It is time for the sick person, the author believes, to be not merely an important concern for physicians but the central focus of medicine. With this in mind, he argues for an understanding of what changes should be made in order to successfully treat the sick while alleviating suffering, and how to actually go about making these changes with the methods and training techniques firmly rooted in the doctor's relationship with the patient.

\"This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the methodological, theoretical, and meta-theoretical considerations and guidelines involved in undertaking institutional ethnographic work involving people with cognitive and communicative disabilities. It presents a coherent platform for integrating theory and method built on classical and recent anthropological and sociological theory as well as classic and recent methodological considerations within the ethnographic tradition. Furthermore, it introduces readers to the challenging work of understanding the lifeworld of people who cannot express themselves in ordinary ways or who are deeply stigmatised and oppressed by dominating discourses telling them how to understand and define their role in society. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and researchers of disability studies, particularly those who undertake ethnographic research or want to understand the challenges involved in doing so\"-- Provided by publisher.

Physicians recognize the importance of patients' emotions in healing yet believe their own emotional responses represent lapses in objectivity. Patients complain that physicians are too detached. The book argues that by empathizing with patients, rather than detaching, physicians can best help them. Yet there is no consistent view of what, precisely, clinical empathy involves. This book challenges the traditional assumption that empathy is either purely intellectual or an expression of sympathy. Sympathy, according to many physicians, involves over-identifying with patients, threatening objectivity and respect for patient autonomy. How can doctors use empathy in diagnosing and treating patients without jeopardizing objectivity or projecting their values onto patients? The book develops an account of emotional reasoning as the core of clinical empathy. It argues that empathy cannot be based on detached reasoning because it involves emotional skills, including associating with another person's images and spontaneously following another's mood shifts. Yet it argues that these emotional links need not lead to over-identifying with patients or other lapses in rationality but rather can inform medical judgement in ways that detached reasoning cannot. For reflective physicians and discerning patients, this book provides a road map for cultivating empathy in medical practice. For a more general audience, it addresses a basic human question: how can one person's emotions lead to an understanding of how another person is feeling?

\"Diagnosed with dementia, Nicci Gerrard's father John continued to live life on his own terms, alongside the disease. But when an isolating hospital stay precipitated a dramatic turn for the worse, Gerrard ... recognized that it was not just the disease, but misguided protocol and harmful practice that cause pain at the end of life. Inspired by his memory to seek a better course for all who suffer with the disease and those who love them, Gerrard became a relentless campaigner\"-- Provided by publisher.

Patient-centered care is a way of thinking and doing things that considers patients partners in the development of a healthcare plan designed to meet their specific needs. It involves knowledge of the individual as a person and integrates that knowledge into their plan of care. Patient-centered care is central to the discussion of healthcare at the insurance and hospital-level. The quality of the service is evaluated more deeply from all the healthcare components, including insurance payments. It is the start of a new client- and patient-centered healthcare, which is based on a profound respect for patients and the obligation to care for them in partnership with them. Healthcare has been lacking a strategy to teach patients how to take care of themselves as much as they possibly can. In countries with socialized healthcare, patients don’t go to the emergency room unless it is necessary; they have a physician on call instead. This affords more personalized care and avoids patients getting lost in the hospital system. This book advocates the critical role of patients in the health system and the need to encourage healthy living. We need to educate patients on how to be more self-aware, giving them the tools to better understand what they need to do to achieve healthy lifestyles, and the protocols and policies to sustain a better life. Prevention has always been the pinnacle of medical care. It’s time to highlight and share this approach with patients and involve them as active participants in their own healthcare. This is the method on which to build the new healthcare for the next century. ABOUT THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION. SECTION 1: PATIENT FIRST. CHAPTER 1 PATIENT-CENTERED CARE. CHAPTER 2 KEY TO ACCESS HEALTH CARE. CHAPTER 3 ADDRESS PATIENTS QUESTIONS AND NEEDS. CHAPTER 4 SHARING VISION OF CARE. CHAPTER 5 MEETING PATIENTS EXPECTATIONS AND SATISFACTIONS. CHAPTER 6 FEAR AND ANXIETY RELIEF: FAMILY CARE. CHAPTER 7 ENGAGING PATIENTS. SECTION 2: TEAM APPROACH. CHAPTER 8 BUILDING TEAM APPROACH AND COMMUNICATIONS. CHAPTER 9 COMMON GROUND WITH THE PATIENTS. CHAPTER 10 CONFUSION OVER CARE. CHAPTER 11 COORDINATE PATIENTS PARTECIPATION. CHAPTER 12 SCHEDULING. CHAPTER 13 DO PATIENTS WANT TO PARTECIPATE? SECTION 3: THE TRUE NORTH. CHAPTER 14 TRANSPARENCY AND HONESTY. CHAPTER 15 THE TRUE NORTH ALIGNEMENT. CHAPTER 16 QUALITY VALUES. CHAPTER 17 OPTIMIZED HEALTH CARE SERVICES. CHAPTER 18 HEALING RELATIONSHIPS. CHAPTER 19 INFORMATION POWER. CHAPTER 20 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND TELEMEDICINE.. SECTION 4: LONG TERM AND CHRONIC CARE. CHAPTER 21 CONTINUITY OF PATIENTS CARE AND ADVANCE DIRECTIVES. CHAPTER 22 INVOLVEMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS AND CAREGIVERS. CHAPTER 23 LONG TERM FACILITIES. CHAPTER 24 COMFORT LEVEL. CHAPTER 25 CHRONIC CONDITIONS AND PAIN MANAGEMENT. CHAPTER 26 DIGNITY IN DEMENTIA. SECTION 5: BUILDING QUALITY SYSTEMS. CHAPTER 27 PATIENTS FLOW AND PRESS GAINEY SCORE. CHAPTER 28 CLINICAL STAFF AND BETTER PATIENTS EXPERIENCE. CHAPTER 29 FALL PREVENTION: ENGAGING THE FAMILY. CHAPTER 30 HAND HYGIENE. CHAPTER 31 TIME OUT FOR BETTER QUALITY. CHAPTER 32 SET UP STRATEGIES. SECTION 6: HEALTH CARE CHANGE OF THINKING. CHAPTER 33 THE CHANGE OF THINKING. CHAPTER 34 PHYSICAL WELLNESS. CHAPTER 35 CIRCLE OF HEALTH. CHAPTER 36 DIFFICULT PATIENTS. CHAPTER 37 PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE. CHAPTER 38 RESPECT PATIENT CHOICES AND AUTONOMY. Eldo E. Frezza, MD, MBA, FACS has been a board-certified physician for more than 20 years with 8 years of experience in health administration. He has a strong ability to improve financial, supply chain, quality and patient safety operations. He is a visible, hands-on leader with advisory expertise. He has a progressive understanding of flow and throughput with a reputation for establishing improvements and has a knowledge of utilization management. He has served as Chief of Service and Chief of Surgery where he provided leadership and direction to successful transition from operating loss, to financial profit while drastically improving emergency and OR throughput. He also served as Director of Surgical Services for a private hospital where he assessed operations and established new metrics for OR; developed and implemented revised supply chain procedures for the OR to improve efficiency and achieve significant cost savings. He has published books in Business and Ethics in healthcare including, The Business of Surgery, published by Cine-Med, copyright 2007; Professionalism & Ethics in a Surgical Practice published by Cine-Med, copyright 2008; and numerous articles. He received his medical degree Cum Laude from the University of Padua School of Medicine, Italy and his MBA in Health Organization management from Texas Tech Rawls School of Business, Lubbock, TX.

They called it \"minor surgery,\" but Nancy Greenly, Sean Berman and a dozen others -- all admitted to Boston Memorial Hospital for routine procedures -- were victims of the same inexplicable, hideous tragedy on the operating table. They never woke up. Susan Wheeler is a third-year medical student working as a trainee at Boston Memorial Hospital. Two patients during her residency mysteriously go into comas immediately after their operations due to complications from anesthesia. Susan begins to investigate the causes behind both of these alarming comas and discovers the oxygen line in Operating Room 8 has been tampered with to induce carbon monoxide poisoning. Then Susan discovers the evil nature of the Jefferson Institute, an intensive care facility where patients are suspended from the ceiling and kept alive until they can be harvested for healthy organs. Is she a participant in -- or a victim of -- a large-scale black market dealing in human organs?

\"This book gives a rare, poignant and in depth understanding of what it is like to live with the severe after effects of brain damage caused by a viral infection of the brain. It tells the story of Claire, a survivor of encephalitis, who was left with an inability to recognise faces, also called prosopagnosia. It describes our current knowledge of the condition, and offers a unique report on daily living with a condition which many of us have, for too long, known too little about. Identity Unknown will be essential reading for professionals working in rehabilitation settings, and will also be of great interest to people who have sustained a brain injury and their families\"-- Provided by publisher.

Promoting Treatment Adherence provides health care providers with a comprehensive set of information and strategies for understanding and promoting treatment adherence across a wide range of treatment types and clinical populations. The information is presented in a practical how-to manner, and is intended as a resource that practitioners can draw from to improve skills in promoting treatment adherence.