RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Educating our Patients about Life and the End of Life: Toward a Pedagogy of Dying
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 713
OP 716
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2014.05.130301
VO 27
IS 5
A1 Ventres, William
YR 2014
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/27/5/713.abstract
AB There is an extensive literature on how physicians can best educate their patients about living healthier—one might call it a “pedagogy of living.” In this essay, I suggest that physicians develop a “pedagogy of dying” for their adult patients: educating them about how they can approach death with some measure of grace and dignity, as consistent with their wants as possible, and cognizant of the final reality we all face. This process happens in the ambulatory settings as part of ongoing care and precedes any serious illness or the crisis of hospitalization. I draw on known models for communicating effectively, my own practice experience, and the disciplines of palliative care and bioethics in asking physicians to consider developing such a “pedagogy of dying,” a kind of anticipatory guidance toward aging, infirmity, and, ultimately, death.