Reference no: EM133936174

Assignment:

Being Mortal" By Atul Gwande Viewing Guide.

1. What should Doctors ask their patients?

2. What problems are unfixable?

3. In interview regarding Sue Monoply, (She was pregnant and had end stage lung cancer), Dr. Gwandi admitted lying to the family. Why did he do that and what was the cost to the family?

4. Dr. Niyak was treating Bill Brooks age 46 with Brain Cancer. He said he would never give up. How does hope change but still remain? What was Bill afraid of? What communication strategy did his doctor use effectively when speaking with him and his wife?

5. Dr. Kathy Silvaggi is the Palliative Care Doctor. What questions does she recommend doctors ask their patients when they first meet? What do you do with those answers?

6. Norma Babino was told that she may qualify for an experimental drug study but she would not be part of the study. The Dr told her that would rather not give the drug if it would cause more harm than good. She wanted to take her grandchild to Disneyland. Did not seem like a realistic goal. How was that goal changed?

7. When doctors know there is nothing more they can do to make someone better, why do they feel like a failure? He commented that practicing medicine is easy, the rest of it is hard. What do you think he meant by that?

8. The situation where the husband was dying and the wife was at the bedside. She was planning on them going home and then going to Florida. Later the wife told the doctor "It's coming close". What did she mean by that?

9. A crisis is too late to start the conversation. You cannot count on the doctor to lead the way. You need to count on the patient. Why?

10. Jeff Shields was the guy who lived with his wife on a farm. He was adamant about dying at home. Who initiated Hospice in his case? Why do you think his final days were the best days of his life?

11. Doctors seem to always be looking for what more they can do rather than do nothing. Could doing nothing be a strategy for care?

12. Dr. Gwande and his family took his father's ashes back to his home country and spread the ashes in the Ganges River. Why?

13. Dr. Gwande asked the question at the end: "How is dying ever acceptable?