Megan Hildebrandt, MFA, Robin N. Richardson, MA, and Joy Scanlon
The Aesthetics of Health undergraduate visual art course at the University of Texas at Austin was designed to enhance art students’ awareness of cancer’s impact.
Sometimes, life-saving treatments have serious negative consequences. This month, AMA Journal of Ethics digital editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux discusses strategies for communicating about iatrogenic outcomes with Dr. Robert Nelson, a senior pediatric ethicist with the Food and Drug Administration, with a particular focus on how to enlist parents as allies in high-stress pediatric cases.
AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Renee Mao, a third-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, interviewed Dr. Tarris Rosell, PhD, DMin, MDiv, about strategies for incorporating spiritual care into oncology.
The clinician/healer must both address the disease and seek to know how the medical condition is being experienced by the patient—what impact it has on his or her life and spirit.
Barriers to effective prognosis conversations include knowledge deficits, misconceptions, cultural differences, and lack of motivation. These can be addressed head-on by good communication interventions.
In order to successfully resolve ethical conflicts, bioethics consultants must pay attention to process and heed stakeholders’ perspectives and values.