Book Description

The Physician and Hospice Care is an informative overview of the roles and attitudes of physicians on the hospice staff, and the challenges they encounter in their work with terminally ill patients. An enlightening reference book, it prepares novice hospice physicians for the often demanding hospice environment by exploring issues they may encounter, such as the physician's role in hospice team management, the developing concept of palliative care and the hospice, and the changing patterns of care for the terminally ill. Hospice staff will gain valuable insights for working with physicians through examinations of doctors'attitudes about palliative care, particularly their difficulty with accepting death as the inevitable outcome of an illness. This indispensable book includes guidelines for physicians on the management of various care activities including pain and symptom management, medical ethics regarding euthanasia, recurrent life-threatening illness, home care for the terminally ill, and ethical considerations related to patient suicide. New physicians and other health care professionals in a variety of disciplines involved in the care of the dying will gain a better understanding of their own roles and contributions to hospice care from this perceptive book. Some of the important topics covered by The Physician and Hospice Care include: collaboration between physicians and social workers physicians'roles as educators of hospice volunteers physicians'reactions to death issues of hospice care for noncancer patients house calls for terminally ill ethical dilemmas in feeding advanced cancer patients nonverbal communication and sexuality in dying patients psychosocial aspects of care for end-stage lung disease staff and family perceptions of death in hospitals home care of the advanced cancer patient This unique book provides sensitive guidelines for physicians and other professionals to use in their work with terminally ill patients. It is an eye-opener of tremendous value to upper level medical students, interns, residents, oncological radiotherapists, oncological subspecialists, young attending physicians in academic and private practice, hospice physicians, and all members of the hospice staff from clergy to volunteers.