Summary Of Being Mortal By Atul Gawande

Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the patient as a whole but also an understanding of the family, social, legal, economic, and institutional circumstances that surround patient care.

Part One: In the documentary "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande talks about the death of patients and how it 's a surprise to a large amount of the patients. He also explains the fear in the medical field, and as a doctor your suppose to help people and cure them, that you 're supposed to give them a better shot and if it later doesn 't go they way you expected,the doctors start to tell themselves what went wrong or what happen everything was going so well. Gawande talks about how he wants to learn more about how to communicate with patients and telling them that they have a certain weeks, days or months left. For example, He talks about one of his patients that he had, her name was Sarah and had stage 4 lung cancer was young and just had a

Being Mortal is a captivating book that I was thrilled to have read for nursing school. Atul Gawande takes you on his journey about what an older adult truly wants and feels when making the transition into old age. He truly takes the time to show you different examples and circumstances in which an older adult must give up something they love in order to mold into what society has made available for older adults. According to the CDC, “In 2014 there were an estimated… 1,369,700 current residents in nursing homes…” (Harris-Kojetin, Sengupta & Park-Lee, 2016, p. xi). This is an astounding number of older adults that are being cared for by others, and that number is only going to continue growing. Throughout Being Mortal, you are taken on a trip

Ethos is the easiest to identify in this speech since he is the one with the deadly disease. This qualifies him to speak on this topic because he is the one going through the event. He is speaking from his own personal experiences and this provides him the credentials for this topic. He also uses pathos. This relates back to the tone of the speech. Though most would have expected him to have a negative outlook, he was positive and optimistic. The reason that is linked to pathos is because his feeling were infectious. If someone who is dying feels content with their life, others will do the same. They will realize that if someone who is dying can still be the luckiest man alive, then someone in good health can too. And as he stated at the end of his speech, just because he had one terrible thing happen to him, does not mean that he had a terrible

Atul Gawande’s book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End presses on an extremely difficult subject: death. Gawande talks about the need to confront death and not ignore it by taking steps in having a meaningful and satisfying end. Readers say that Gawande does demand a lot from people and the book is eye opening but it does not have a guide to having a better end in life. I agree that Gawande is demanding a lot but people still to listen to him but I think Gawande does give a guide to having a more satisfying end to life though not simply.

Death is one of the most avoided topics because of the finality that comes with it and the fear of the unknown after death. However, there are quite a number of authors such as AtulGawande, Elisabeth Kubler-ross and Ira Byock who have attempted to go ahead and deal with death as a topic and other connected topics.Each of these authors have delved into one of the most revered topics that is death including related topics that come with it such as the dying process itself. Ira Byock’s Dying well: Peace and possibilities at the end of life is a book that looks at the moment prior to death when an individual is terminally sick and is at the point of death. A

Being Mortal a book by Doctor Atul Gawande expresses beliefs obtaining humans around the world in all societies and how they can better themselves by accepting and living with the idea of illness, old age, and most importantly death. In Being Mortal Gawande proposed the idea that modern medicine has done more harm than good. By writing about powerful experiments and personal stories Gawande invites the idea of death and how today’s idea of death and aging should be learned from. In the introduction of his memoir, Gawande clearly delivers the purpose of his book, Gawande states, “This is a book about the modern experience of mortality-about what it’s like to be creatures who age and die, how medicine has changed the experience and how it hasn’t,

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who spent two years of her professional career gathering information from terminally ill patients to create the premise for On Death and Dying. “It is not meant to be a textbook on how to manage dying patients, nor is it intended as a complete study of the psychology of dying.” (Kübler-Ross, 1969). This book was written as a call-to-action; to raise awareness of the voice of the dying. Not only is there stigma surrounding the topic, but also numerous misconceptions concerning the emotional journey of the terminally ill. The Kübler-Ross Model creates a framework for those interacting with dying persons, to help caretakers better understand the transitions that are taking place, resulting in higher-quality care. This model is comprised of five stages, which can be experienced in a variety of combinations. Prior to the first stage, the patient must be delivered the news of their illness or the severity of their illness, which usually results in shock. Denial is the first stage noted by Kübler-Ross. Denial and isolation are normal responses to overwhelming emotions and serve as a temporary response until the individual is ready to accept reality. Although this defense mechanism is normative, it is important to note that it isn’t necessarily healthy, and that some never move past this stage. As reality sets in, pain beings to emerge and manifests itself in the next stage: anger. Rationality takes a

As mentioned in a Frontline interview with Gawande about Being Mortal, life’s two ‘unfixables’ are aging ang dying ("Dr. Atul Gawande On Aging, Dying And "Being Mortal"). Despite this well-known fact, most physicians and patients alike are overwhelmed by the concept of death. Moreover, in times of medical crisis, terminally ill patients allow themselves to be given “the medical equivalent of lottery tickets” in the hopes of making a miraculous recovery (Gawande 171). The allowance of end-of-life decisions to be controlled by the concepts of medicine or technology is a dangerous path which shows a lack in pragmatism regarding death (Sinclair). Although the overall avoidance of the

end. Every day, countless people quietly pass away after long and painful struggles with terminal

A Death of One’s Own sheds light onto the controversial issue regarding end of life decisions, providing a few examples of people struggling with these choices. The film tells the stories of three particular individuals, Jim, Kitty, and Ricky, each with a unique end of life situation. Jim suffers from ALS and has specific care requests, 56-year-old Kitty struggles with her uterine cancer and constant pain, and Ricky is a patient dying from severe liver failure who can no longer speak and make decisions on his own. All of these individuals present different, yet similar issues regarding end of their life care. This film describes the importance of advance directives, the arguments surrounding physician assisted suicide, and this prompted me to form my own opinion on preparing my own directives and thoughts on these tough decisions.

Key people could be family, doctors, carers, religious leaders etc. Each may own distinctive role to play in order for the choices and preferences of the individual to be respected and carried out. [ Every person’s end-of-life trajectory is different and needs differ in intensity and quality over time. End-of-life care must adapt to the varying and changing needs of the individual over time and that it cannot be limited to certain settings or services. The provision of good

A person’s life can end at any age. They can depart quickly or slowly. End of life care, also known as palliative care, is the care of patients that are not only in their final hours or days but the patients with a terminal illness that has become incurable. End of life care takes into mind what the patient desires so it is recommended that they consider an advanced care plan also known as an advance directive and living will. These documents allow the patient to formulate decisions on the future of their care if, at any point, they cannot vocally express themselves.

“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life. We will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die” (Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of hospice movement). This quote by Dame Cicely Saunders is in regards to caring for patients in hospice, however, it describes how suffering can be eased because everyone deserves to live a full and peaceful life. Each individual person experiences different forms of suffering throughout their life, whether it be because of an illness or a life situation. This paper will analyze the suffering experienced by Dr. Jack McKee (The Doctor) and the narrator from the poem “Next Day”.

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their