By Dr Holly McGuigan (Specialty Doctor in Palliative Medicine, Strathcarron Hospice) and Dr Ruth Isherwood (Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Cornhill Macmillan Centre, Perth) Twitter: @cloudy_lemonade “I’m sorry, what?” “Patulous Eustachian Tube”, came the reply from my prospective Masters supervisor. “I’m sorry but I have no idea what you’re talking about…” And so began an […]
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A conversation about dying – Green Man Festival 2021
News and Events “What happens when you die” event at Green Man Festival 2021. Listen to the event here. The Green Man Festival is Wales’ largest art festival, and it returned with furore and a large offering of musical and spoken word performances, after being cancelled in 2020. Where better to discuss the […]
Learn from my mistakes! What I learned when I spoke at a predatory conference
By Colleen Davis, Executive Coach, Registered Nurse, speaker, mother and life-long learner who helps inspire people to live their authentic life, City of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. LinkedIn Account Like many people these days, I receive a lot of emails from predatory journals or conference organizers. In 2018, I was approached, as an executive coach, […]
Creative Distress
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust and Woking and Sam Beare hospice. Twitter: @JoeHawk75825077 We have a lifetime to prepare for our dying and yet it seems that for most of us we still arrive ill-prepared. As humanity has evolved we have taken advantage of […]
An evaluation of the needs of patients in the last days of life
By Dr Anja Berglund, Internal Medicine Trainee at University Hospitals Sussex As I’m sitting down to write this, we are exactly one week from so-called “Black Wednesday” – a new cohort of Foundation Year 1 doctors starting on the wards. As always, I’m reminded of my own experiences in those first few months. Our […]
Should we Prescribe Dogs?
By Dr Matthew Doré, palliative care consultant at Northern Ireland Hospice & Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Sometimes I wonder if we limit our prescriptions to ‘medications’ rather than ‘treatments’ and that prevents a more creative approach to being a doctor. Compassionate communities (1) is prescribing ‘compassion’ with amazing success and we were (pre covid) […]
Homecoming
By Heather Trickey Hey! Sit down! Eat! Let’s outrun all claims of sleep to tell our stranger stories. Pour wine. Break bread. Tell me about your heart. Take mine. After all, I’ve almost known you all this time. You, who were abroad on adventure, encompassing your part, taking in, absorbing your own commonwealth […]
Schrodinger’s Chimney; the nature of control
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Woking and Sam Beare Hospice, Honorary consultant Ashford and St Peter’s hospital Foundation Trust. Email: Joseph.hawkins@nhs.net When talking with a neighbour she remarked that her chimney was tilting; I looked and so it was. When I looked back at her she smiled and shrugged: ‘There are worse […]
Do Not Attempt Resuscitation decisions and the need for regulation in Ireland
By Dr Lucy M. Davis, School of Law, University of Limerick, Ireland. Email: lucy.davis@ul.ie and lucymdavis@yahoo.com Twitter: @LucyMDavis “Why did you choose to research DNAR orders?” This was one of the first questions raised by examiners when I defended my PhD thesis. A standard question for most PhD viva voce exams and definitely, a valid question for my […]
Chronative care – Care in time
By Dr Matthew Doré, palliative care consultant at Northern Ireland Hospice & Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. “They have been in hospice for a month,” is the phrase which is sometimes spoken aloud but more often is in thought and generally implies the patient has had their time and should be discharged now. I want […]