The simple question - “What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best care possible?” - is meant to help doctors and palliative care teams provide more empathetic care to the terminally ill. Chochinov is piloting a study, funded by the Canadian Cancer Society, of what’s known as the Patient Dignity Question.

“If we’re really, as a society, considering changing legislation that is going to allow for assisted suicide, it almost seems unfathomable that we would go that route before we have any obligation to be providing everyone quality, end-of-life care,” he said in an interview.ĭr. Harvey Max Chochinov, Canada research chair in palliative care, said the culture of medicine “largely ignores death and tends to abandon patients when cure is no longer viable.” In a recent article published in the journal Nature, Dr. We have over 100 stories, and they all have that kind of poignancy And because no physician or test can offer a 100 guarantee that one doesn’t have cancer, a hypochondriac always has fuel to feed Iris. He said he worries the emotionally charged issue will overshadow the urgent need for better access to quality, end-of-life care for Canadians. Doctors can assure them that there’s nothing wrong, but since the cough is real, the assurances fall on deaf ears. The types of inquiry in the field of aging that could benefit from participant observation research are also explored. You, an associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and a member of the Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network. These benefits are discussed and illustrated in this article by examples drawn from the authors participant observation study of physicians-in- training and their interactions with dying elderly patients. “I personally am uncomfortable with the idea, but I know it’s something that we’ll need to have a societal debate about,” said Dr. court ruling that last summer struck down Canada’s ban on doctor-assisted suicide, ruling it unconstitutional and granting a woman dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease the right to seek a doctor’s help in ending her life. The issue is now before the courts: The federal government is appealing a B.C. Under the bill, only a patient of legal age and capable of giving consent and who is suffering from an incurable illness and “constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain” would be permitted to seek a doctor-hastened death.Ĭanada’s Criminal Code prohibits euthanasia and assisted suicide, stating that, “no person can consent to have death inflicted upon him.” It is no wonder then that when we realize there is nothing more than can be done for a patient, we run in. As doctors we spend many years at University learning how to save a life, to lose a life is regarded a failure. Being present in death and dying - out of our comfort zones. Doctors AVOID telling patients they’re dying as they’ve never been trained TERMINAL patients are not being told they are dying because doctors are too scared to break the news. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Daily adventures of a baby Doctor in training Tuesday, 9 June 2015.

Doctors in training are dying