Palliative
Care Book of the Month
DYING. A Practical Guide for the Journey
Sue Wood and Peter Fox
Double Storey Books, 2005
195 pp
ISBN 978 17701 301 73
RRP £12.15, $US11.95
Every now and then I am asked by carers or patients themselves for ‘a book’ about dying, but I have never seen anything that I felt comfortable recommending. Sue Wood and Peter Fox’s Guide comes close. It is written to help anyone who is dying, and their family and carers. The authors view the terminal stages of life like all the rest, it’s a time for people to live through as richly as possible, and to deal positively with all the difficulties that may arise. The material addressed to the patient in the early chapters about getting the news, dealing with it and acceptance are first-class and written in a non-threatening way. Carers reading this will have better insight as to what the patient may be thinking. Mourning is discussed before death, which is where it belongs, as both patient and carers mourn during the terminal phase of an illness. Other chapters seem more directed to the carers—food and nutrition, complementary therapies and caring for the carers. There is useful information about palliative care and providing care at home. The chapter on the last 48 hours, including the clinical signs of dying and death, are perhaps more for the family and carers. At the end, there are about ten pages of very meaningful texts for reflection, gathered from a variety of religious and non-religious sources.
This book hails from Cape Town. Sue Wood was a nurse who worked for many years as an aromatherapist and counsellor. Peter Fox was a minister in the Uniting Presbyterian Church before working more in pastoral care and spiritual counselling. Their experience in end-of-life care shines through.
In the face of a terminal illness, reading about death and dying is not for everyone. But, if you work in hospice and palliative care, you should know about this book in order to meet that infrequent request. Better still, a copy on the hospice library shelf, to be loaned out occasionally, would be of great benefit to some dying patients and their families.
Roger Woodruff, MD (Australia)
(November 2009)
Book reviews
Clare Chambers and Elaine Ryder
Radcliffe Publishing, 2009
217 pp
ISBN 978 184619 287 6
RRP £29.99 $US49.95 $AU77.00
Review copy supplied by Elsevier Australia <shop.elsevier.com.au>
This book is by two experienced nurse educators who feel strongly that nursing is in danger of losing its essence of caring and who believe that compassion is the key to nursing. The chapters cover a range of issues central to compassionate care—empathy and sensitivity, dignity and respect, listening and responding, diversity and cultural competence, choice and priorities, and empowerment and advocacy. Each chapter contains a number of case scenarios, which are then discussed. There are a number of boxes titled ‘Thoughts for Your Practice’ that challenge you to think about the issues in the context of your own practice. There are some difficulties in writing a book of this nature so that it will be satisfying to both undergraduate students and experienced practitioners, but I think this book will be of value to both.
My greatest concern looking through this carefully prepared book was why isn’t there a companion volume ‘Compassion and Caring in Medical Practice’? The principles are the same and no less important. It would give medical students or junior doctors some insight, an extra dimension, as to what medical practice is all about. But, I suppose, as long as the acquisition of knowledge and skills predominates…
NURSE TO NURSE PALLIATIVE CARE
Margaret L. Campbell
McGraw-Hill, 2009
282 pp
ISBN 978-0-07-149323-9
RRP $US 29.95 £21.99
This pocket-sized book is intended for the hospital nurse caring for patients who may be approaching the end-of-life. It provides all the basic information about palliative care with an emphasis on what I will call the more difficult areas—the patient’s prognosis, how to communicate with patients and families, and there is a particularly useful chapter on the withdrawal of life-sustaining devices and interventions. The text is enhanced with ‘Clinical Alert’ and ‘How to Say It’ boxes. There are a number of useful tables describing different interventions for a particular clinical problem under different circumstances that clearly state what to do and why. The second half of the book referred to simply as ‘Appendices’ in the Table of Contents, contains a mass of useful information including a summary of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care and position statements on resuscitation, symptom control, artificial hydration and nutrition, complementary therapies and much more. I think this would be a very useful reference for a hospital nurse who has not had special training or experience in palliative care. The book includes full-text PDA download.
TEA WITH ELISABETH
Tributes to Hospice Pioneer Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Fern Stewart Welch, Rose Winters and Ken Ross (Eds)
Quality of Life Publishing, 2009
248 pp
ISBN 978-0-981621999
RRP $US14.95 £9.10
Taking tea, sitting down with a treasured guest, was Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ way of connecting and sharing in what she perceived as a disconnected world. Here are 51 memories and tributes from a range of people who had the fortune to have their paths crossed by the woman credited with almost single-handedly bringing talk of death and dying into the open. Several other pioneers of the hospice movement contributed, including Balfour Mount, Dame Cicely Saunders and Florence Wald. A number, some of whom had met Kübler-Ross only briefly, describe it as inspiring and life-changing. Other pieces, particularly from family members, provide interesting glimpses of the private persona. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these snippets and the power and charisma of the woman shines through.
[email protected]
WHAT SHOULD I TELL YOU?
A Mother’s Final Words to her Infant Son
Jo Middlemiss
Print Matters, 2008
105pp plus Audio CD
ISBN 978 0 9559153 0 7
RRP £9.95
You’ve made it through medical school, started a career, got married and had a baby son you adored. But at the age of 31, when her son was two, Margaret Srini was dying of disseminated cancer. During the last eight weeks of her life, she had the inner strength to record a tape for her son to hear when he was 21.
It is not unusual to suggest to patients that they might consider making some sort of recording for those they will leave behind, but this is the first one that I have actually read (and listened to). Published and annotated by Margaret’s sister, it is very moving, with much happiness and love and gratitude. And there are amusing recollections, like going on childhood holidays with all nine members of the family in a VW beetle. I believe that being able to show what Margaret did to others caught in similarly tragic circumstances may provide them with the support and encouragement to do something similar.
THE WOMAN WHO DECIDED TO DIE
Challenges and Choices at the Edges of Medicine
Ronald Munson
OxfordUniversity Press, 2009
190 pp
ISBN 978-0-19-533101-1
RRP $US27.95, £16.99
Ronald Munson is described as a novelist and bioethicist who is also a Professor of the Philosophy of Science and Medicine at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. Both of his talents shine in this book. Here are ten tales of patients and their families that bring major ethical issues to the forefront, but there is an awkward juxtaposition. There is the young woman who decides to forego further chemotherapy for her end-stage leukaemia, the parents faced with the decisions about donating the organs of their daughter, the man who is asked to donate part of his liver for his step-son, and the convicted murderer in need of a heart transplant. The narratives are skillfully written short stories and Munson brings his characters to life. After each story, there is a brief discussion of the ethical issues involved that tend to have a sombre, academic tone compared to the stories. This book would be a profitable (and enjoyable) read for any practitioner with an interest in ethical issues and it would be particularly useful for any undergraduate or postgraduate course in medical ethics.
PALLITIVE CARE IN NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
A Team Approach
Judi Byrne, Penny McNamara, Jane Seymour and Pam McClinton (Eds)
Radcliffe Publishing, 2009
158 pp
ISBN 978 184619 293 7
RRP £24.99 $US45.00
Review copy supplied by Elsevier Australia <shop.elsevier.com.au>
Despite its title, this book focuses on the progressive long-term neurological conditions (PLTNCs)—multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s—and does not touch on the problems that we see more frequently with cerebrovascular disease and dementia. This book is about the appropriateness and advantages of incorporating long-term palliative care into the management of patients with PLTNCs, together with expert neurological care. The book opens with a chapter on the epidemiology and clinical picture of the PLTNCs, which I found concise but informative. The second chapter is about the principles of palliative care, which I am sure will be informative to neurologists. There are then two chapters on the supportive and palliative care needs and symptom control for these patients. These were informative and clinically orientated, but I would like to have heard what the other members of the clinical team had to say and the contributions from the physio, OT, pastoral care worker, social worker, and dietician etc. etc., would have enhanced the value of the text. There are also chapters on challenges to communication, the management of patients and families, ethical considerations, and bereavement support.
There is also a chapter on the Sue Ryder Care Palliative Initiatives in Neurological Care (PINC) program, in which a lot of hard work and effort has gone into drawing up guidelines for the inclusion of palliative care into the long-term management of patients with PLTNCs. I am sure these guidelines will improve the standard of care by raising awareness, but guidelines are just that, guidelines. I found this chapter a bit boring (too much about organisation and administration) and, as no two patients with PLTNCs will present the same problems I would have been more interested in hearing more about how the various members of the interdisciplinary palliative care team address the clinical problems they encounter.
THE FAMILY MEETING IN PALLIATIVE CARE
An Instrument for Spiritual Care
Heather Tan
VDM Verlag, 2009
366 pp
ISBN 978-3-639-19490-6
RRP £73.00 $US116.00
The review copy supplied was a PDF file. While I have heard a lot said in favour of e-books, I found it a severe distraction to not be able to dip in and out of the text to try and get an overall feeling for the work. I think the thesis here is that a family meeting provides a valid and meaningful forum for the exploration of spiritual issues in end-of-life care alongside the more standard one-to-one counselling. The back cover states ‘This book outlines a study informed by Hermeneutic phenomenology and utilising Rickoeur’s theory of interpretation in which Murphy’s model was implemented and the experience of patients, family members and staff explored’. For anyone with a special interest in spiritual counselling in end-of-life care, this book is out there, although I have to say it’s on the expensive side.
TEXTBOOK OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE (Paperback)
Eduardo Bruera, Irene Higginson, Carla Ripamonti and Charles von Gunten (Eds)
Hodder Arnold, 2009
1095pp
ISBN 978 0340966242
RRP $US99.50 £93.60
Hodder Arnold have published a paperback edition of this book that is priced at less than half the cost of the original 2007 hardback in the US; there is less reduction in the sterling cost. A few things have changed in that time, but the great majority of what’s in this text still applies.
“The editors have blended the contributions of clinicians, educators, and researchers into a thoughtful, comprehensive, readable, evidence-based text that addresses the history as well as the practice of palliative medicine throughout the world.”--Journal of Palliative Medicine
Roger Woodruff
(October 2009)
Dr. Woodruff is an IAHPC Board Member. For more information go to: http://www.hospicecare.com/Bio/r_woodruff.htm
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AUSTRALIA
Note: Review copies become property of IAHPC and are not returned to the author. Only palliative care related books which are previously approved will be reviewed. Due to the large number of requests, we can't provide exact dates of when books will be reviewed.
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