Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Bring up hospice is like proposing to one's girlfriend

1.  It shouldn't be a surprise
2.  You should have some idea of the answer before you ask the questions
3.  It is not how you start the conversation.
4.  Don't consult social work, ask yourself!

It's interesting to me how intimidating it is for doctors/residents/med students to bring up hospice (for a variety of reasons) and for patients/families to have it brought up or to bring it up.  So to make thing simpler, I've come up with this analogy that I think applies for at least these 4 reasons.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent analogy! I would add that setting is important for both discussions as well...

Tae said...

#4 - you should have plenty of morphine and/or lube.

Dr Mashaw said...

I love your blog. I am a geriatrician in a rural area. I was wondering if you could check out mine and give me some advice?
www.doctormash.blogspot.com

Joshua Uy said...

Tae, you leave crazy comments

Aubrey :) said...




Hi,

I was wondering if you accepted any guest posting regarding senior bone health and hip replacement surgery on your site? I couldn’t manage to find your email on the site. If you could get a hold of me at ahayes@drugwatch.com, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,
-Aubrey