Being Mortal Atul Gawande Summary
A Good Life/A Good Death Atul Gawande’s book Being Mortal and the corresponding Frontline Program described many examples of individuals being diagnosed with terminal illnesses and how they and the medical professionals responded to their diagnoses. I was surprised to learn that Gawande, who is an oncologist, and many of his colleagues did not want to tell their terminally ill patients that they are dieing. I understand that informing someone that they are dying would not be a pleasant task to undertake, however I thought that doctors were comfortable engaging in these difficult conversations because it is part of their job. Instead it seems that doctors are perhaps slightly in denial of what their profession can do to cure patients, which
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We see billboards and commercials about the importance of mammograms, it’s possible that public service announcements about advance directives would increase awareness and encourage more people to have one. In order to determine if requiring everyone to have an advanced directive is helpful, a brief survey could be distributed to individuals who are near the end of their life and their family members after they’ve passed away to evaluate the effectiveness. Questions could be asked to the individuals about the quality of their life currently, if having an advance directive was helpful, and family members could evaluate the ease of decision making and if their loved ones treatment preferences were followed. The book also described alternative skilled nursing facilities with some facilities operating more like apartment buildings, some had pets on site, a garden, or allowing children to receive child care services at the same place (Gawande, 2014). I think that independence is very important to older adults. It is strange that people who create skilled nursing facilities, or assisted living communities don’t ask their potential residents how they would like the environment to be. I can imagine how upset I would be if I had to live in a small room, with limited possessions, and had no input on the activities or
We see billboards and commercials about the importance of mammograms, it’s possible that public service announcements about advance directives would increase awareness and encourage more people to have one. In order to determine if requiring everyone to have an advanced directive is helpful, a brief survey could be distributed to individuals who are near the end of their life and their family members after they’ve passed away to evaluate the effectiveness. Questions could be asked to the individuals about the quality of their life currently, if having an advance directive was helpful, and family members could evaluate the ease of decision making and if their loved ones treatment preferences were followed. The book also described alternative skilled nursing facilities with some facilities operating more like apartment buildings, some had pets on site, a garden, or allowing children to receive child care services at the same place (Gawande, 2014). I think that independence is very important to older adults. It is strange that people who create skilled nursing facilities, or assisted living communities don’t ask their potential residents how they would like the environment to be. I can imagine how upset I would be if I had to live in a small room, with limited possessions, and had no input on the activities or