Palliative Care Books of the Month and other Book Reviews
Palliative Care Book of the Month
THE NATURE OF SUFFERING AND THE GOALS OF NURSING
Betty R. Ferrell and Nessa Coyle
Oxford University Press, 2008
127 pp
ISBN 978-0-19-533312-1
RRP £19.99 $US29.99
This slim volume, written by two experts in oncology and end-of-life nursing care who need no introduction, is a real gem. Starting from Eric J. Cassell’s pivotal The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine (OUP, 1991), it sets out to explore the suffering that nurses witness in patients, families, colleagues, and themselves. There are chapters addressing what suffering is (or our best attempts at defining it), ethical and theological perspectives, the stories of suffering that nurses hear from patients, and the suffering of the nurses themselves. This book is written for nurses in a nursing voice, but deserves much wider readership amongst health care professionals. Eric J. Cassell himself is quoted on the back cover saying ‘There is not another book like it.’
Roger Woodruff (Australia), an IAHPC Board Member
(March 2010)
Book reviews
CHOOSING LIFE, CHOOSING DEATH
The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Ethics and Law
Charles Foster
Hart Publishing, 2009
189pp
ISBN 978-1-84113-929-6
RRP $US45.00, £18.02
‘Autonomy is a vital principle in medical law and ethics, but there is a dangerous presumption that it should have the only vote, or at least the casting vote. This book is an assault on that presumption, and an audit of autonomy’s extraordinary status.’
Written by a London barrister who also teaches medical law and ethics at the University of Oxford, this is a book about medical law, not a treatise on medical ethics. Foster discusses a range of contentious issues from reproductive technology, to abortion, to confidentiality and consent, and, needless to say, euthanasia. In a style both entertaining and informative, Foster turns his gaze on the views of autonomists, pointing out where they are valid and where they have been carried way too far, particularly in relation to the debate about euthanasia and end-of-life decision making. I particularly liked his list of the ‘many reasons why autonomy, if it were consistent, would oppose euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide’.
I had trouble putting this book down. If you have an interest in medical ethics or are involved in the debate about euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide, it comes strongly recommended.
***
PHARMACOLOGY OF PAIN
Pierre Beaulieu, David Lussier, Frank Porreca Anthony Dickenson (Eds)
IASP Press, 2010
622 pp
ISBN 978-0-931092-78-7
RRP $US100.00, £115.00
As one who thought he had a reasonable grasp of the basic pharmacology of analgesics, reviewing this volume was a wake-up call. There seems to have been an explosion in basic science, some of which already impacts on clinical practice, some of which is still in process.
The opening section includes a chapter on applied pain neurophysiology and a proposal for a new taxonomy of analgesic drugs. The second section includes 15 chapters on specific pharmacological pain targets including cyclooxygenase, opioid, cannabinoid, glutamate and dopamine pathways and systems and the role of various ion channels in pain pharmacology. The third section includes an important chapter analysing vulnerability to opioid tolerance, dependence and addiction, as well as a chapter on the placebo response. The final section deals with pharmacological considerations in obstetrics, paediatrics, geriatrics, in patients with organ failure, and in palliative care.
The chapters are detailed and well-referenced and there is good use of schematic flow diagrams. The editors and IASP press are to be congratulated and if you want a cutting-edge review of the pharmacology of pain, then here it is.
***
ILLUMINATING THE DIVERSITY OF CANCER AND PALLIATIVE CARE EDUCATION
Sharing Good Practice
Lorna Foyle and Janis Hostad (Eds)
Radcliffe Publishing, 2010
395 pp
ISBN 978-1-84619-057-5
RRP £36.99 $US69.00
Review copy supplied by Elsevier Australia www.elsevier.com.au
This is the third volume on cancer and palliative care education, following Delivering Cancer and Palliative Care Education (2004) and Innovations in Cancer and Palliative Care Education (2007). It brings together a range of approaches, techniques, methods, educational strategies and imaginative innovation. I thought there was perhaps more emphasis on tailoring communication to fit particular clinical circumstances than in the earlier volumes. The chapter on progressing cancer and palliative education through neuro-linguistic programming left me unconvinced that this was a step forward. The chapter discussing the use of films as educational tools did not mention Wit, which I thought was a shame. If you have anything to do with cancer and palliative care education, this volume has a lot of material to make you sit up and reflect.
***
NURSING CARE AT THE END OF LIFE
Ginny Wacker Guido
Pearson, 2010
200 pp + on-line resources
ISBN 978-0-13-513611-9
RRP £30.99, $US53.95
This is a very good introduction to palliative care nursing. It includes chapters covering communication, psychosocial issues, cultural and spiritual care, ethical and legal issues, as well as pain and symptom control and a discussion of hydration and nutrition. The material is well set out with plenty of lists and tables, and there are lists of questions at the end of each section. In addition, there are on-line resources with additional questions, interactive assignments and activities, and other resource materials.
***
BODY-SELF DUALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ETHICS AND POLITICS
Patrick Lee and Robert P. George
Cambridge University Press, 2009
222pp
ISBN 978-0-521-12419-5
RRP $US29.99, £18.99
I think this book is best described as a tightly written and scholarly critique on contentious issues in moral philosophy. Patrick Lee is Director of the Bioethics Institute and Professor of Bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Robert George is Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. They argue that human beings are physical, animal organisms – albeit essentially rational and free. There are chapters on hedonism, abortion, euthanasia and sexuality. I’m no expert, but some of their theses seemed to be coming from the high moral ground of the Right. I liked their explanatory style and the way in which counter arguments were addressed. Interesting, but not bedtime reading.
***
BEING WITH DYING
Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
Joan Halifax
Shambhala Publications, 2008
204 pp
ISBN 978-159030-718-2
RRP $US16.95, £11.25
Joan Halifax is a Zen priest and anthropologist with many years’ experience of working with the dying. She believes that the Buddhist approach to death (and to life) can be of benefit to people of all backgrounds and faiths. Here is her recipe for ‘the beautiful, difficult work of offering spiritual care to dying people’, complete with exercises and suggestions for meditations. Few in palliative care condone what Halifax describes as ‘a death that is too often life-denying, antiseptic, drugged-up, tube-entangled, institutionalised.’ But it’s not just the hospitals and the medical system that are at fault; a quantum shift would be needed for her path to be applied by ordinary people in our ‘advanced’ societies.
**
Roger Woodruff (Australia), an IAHPC Board Member
(March 2010)
Dr. Woodruff is an IAHPC Board Member. For more information go to: http://www.hospicecare.com/Bio/r_woodruff.htm
View over 100+ IAHPC hospice & palliative care book reviews
www.hospicecare.com/bookshop/hospice-palliative-care-book-reviews
Note for authors: If you wish to have your book reviewed, please send to:
Dr Roger Woodruff
IAHPC Bookshop Editor
210 Burgundy St, Suite 9
Heidelberg, Victoria 3084
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.
Email this page to a friend!
Top of Page |
