Palliative Care Book of the Month and another Review
Palliative Care Book of the Month
END OF LIFE
Nursing Solutions for Death with Dignity
Lynn Keegan and Carole Ann Drick
Springer Publishing, 2011
252pp
ISBN 978-082610759-6
RRP $US45.00 £31.00
My generation has had the privilege of seeing death and dying finally brought out of the closet as well as witnessing the very rapid growth of hospice and palliative care. But we all know more needs to be done, both in services being available to more people and in how we provide the best possible care around the time of death.
This book provides a wonderful vision of how we could improve the care we are able to provide for dying people and their families. Written by two leaders in holistic nursing, it embraces what we talk about in palliative care and takes it one step further. They argue the need for creating a new place for dying, which they call the Golden Room. This room ‘offers the patient a place to be a person of dignity and worth, and to experience the comfort of family and loved ones in a supportive atmosphere. It offers the family the privacy, the time, the opportunity, and the support to come together and laugh and cry. The trained and compassionate staff are able to support, comfort and love the patient and family while assisting them through this special one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated experience that we call physical death.
I could nit-pick about little practical details here and there, but as a concept, a vision, I was quite taken with it. Perhaps it’s about putting a bit of heart back into what we do. The book is thought provoking and, if you are like me, you will be assessing (consciously or subconsciously) how good you, or your service, are at providing holistic care around the time of death. It deserves to be widely read and I hope it starts many a conversation. **
Dr. Roger Woodruff
(June 2011)
Another Review
GOVERNING DEATH AND LOSS
Empowerment, involvement, and participation.
Steve Conway (ed.)
Oxford University Press, 2011
152pp
ISBN 978-0-19-958617-2
RRP £24.95 $US47.95
This book is focused on developments in the care of the dying and their survivors, in our societies whose structure continues to change and evolve, with a particular emphasis on community empowerment, involvement and participation. It is divided into two parts, the first describing the sociological view of death and loss, the second some examples of putting principles into practice. I enjoyed the descriptions of a number of innovative programs, from different corners of the world, that reported both progress and some perhaps unforeseen problems. The contributions to this book are erudite and sincere, but my impression is that this is very much a discussion-in-progress. I was challenged by the statement in the introduction that this book “will be particularly useful to those involved in the care and support of the dying.” That may be the editor’s hope, but caring for the dying is what I do each day and I don’t know that contemplating what societal changes might be needed to allow our communities to deal better with death and loss is going to help me tomorrow morning. That said, if you work in palliative care and are interested in knowing what people are thinking and doing in an attempt to achieve that goal, then this book will be both interesting and informative.
Dr. Roger Woodruff
(June 2011)
***
Dr. Roger Woodruff (Australia). Dr. Woodruff is a Lifetime member of the IAHPC board and his bio may be found at http://www.hospicecare.com/Bio/r_woodruff.htm
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Dr Roger Woodruff
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AUSTRALIA
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