DIFFICULT CONVERSATONS IN MEDICINE. Elisabeth Macdonald, editor. Oxford : Oxford University Press, c2004. W 62 D569 2004

Aimed at doctors and other health professionals in the early years of their medical practice, this work shows how to develop good communication skills and avoid anxiety in conversations of a sensitive nature with patients and their families. It gives a theoretical basis for good communication, as well as a simple formula that can be adapted to a variety of patients and situations. It offers examples of what to say when dealing with strong emotions, difficult personalities, people from different cultures, or with children, adolescents, or the elderly. It includes sample conversations on such specific topics such as: the relapse of cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, dying patients, unexpected death, handling a difference of opinion over treatment, and making apologies when things go wrong.
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THE RENEWAL OF GENEROSITY: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live. Arthur W. Frank, author. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2004.
W 62 F828r 2004

This work illustrates how contemporary health care often lacks what the author terms "generosity of spirit", as experienced by both patients who are left unhappy about how they are treated and medical professionals who feel estranged from their calling. He calls for a return to medicine as a face-to-face encounter, between people who are suffering bodily ills and other people who have the skills to relieve this suffering. Medical generosity lies in having the grace to welcome those who suffer and to offer them consolation, in addition to diagnostics, drugs, and surgeries. This will be to the mutual benefit of both and can transform a demoralized system of medicine into caring relationships.
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PATIENT SAFETY: Principles and Practice. Jacqueline Fowler Byers, Susan V. White, editors. New York : Springer Publishing, c2004. WX 153 P297 2004

Combining theory with evidence-based strategies, this book addresses medical error in clinical settings and provides clinicians and administrators with skills and information to develop safe patient practices. Topics include best practices, human factors, risk management, and innovative uses of technology such as computerized clinical decision support systems and bar-coding medications.

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TO DO NO HARM: Ensuring Patient Safety in Health Care Organizations. Julianne M. Morath, Joanne E. Turnbull, authors. San Francisco : JosseyBass, c2005. WX 153 M653t 2005

This work focuses on two of the lessons revealed by the 1999 Institute of Medicine's report "To Err is Human". Those lessons are: "It's a systems problem" and "We need to create a culture of safety." This book examines those issues, declaring patient safety urgent and a priority, and calling for executive responsibility, a blameless reporting system, assigning accountability, and accelerating change.

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THE SECRET LIFE OF GERMS: Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter. Philip Tierno, author. New York : Pocket Books, c2001. QW 4 T564s 2001

Provides an inside view of the fascinating and elegantly-ordered world of microorganisms - from the common cold, E. coli, and Lyme disease to encephalitis, mad cow disease, and flesh-eating bacteria. Protective response strategies are offered, including health and hygiene tips, advice on food safety, and pointers on human contact and its role in disease tranmission.
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PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DYING: The Case for Palliative Care and Patient Choice. Timoth E. Quill, Margaret P. Battin, editors. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, c2004. W 50 P578a 2004

A group of physicians, ethicists, lawyers, and activists presents the case for the legalization of physician-asisted dying for terminally ill patients who voluntarily request it. They state that, according to studies of physician practice in the United States, it already is practiced to some degree, whether legal or not. The moral, legal, political and personal dilemmas confronting such end of life situations are discussed, along with empirical data from Oregon and the Netherlands. As a whole the essays advocate the ethical acceptance and legal recognition of the practice of physician-assisted dying as a last resort, not as an alternative to palliative care, but as an option for patients who seek it.
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DEATH, DYING, AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES. David Oliviere, Barbara Monroe, editors. Oxford : Oxford University Press, c2004. WB 310 D285 2004.

This work addesses the social context of the care of dying people of varying social circumstances and communities. It focuses on "the disadvantaged dying" - those locked out of access to the best care by virtue of their disease, their ethnicity, where they live, or some other form of discrimination or social exclusion. It speaks about best practices that can balance the inequalities in society's structure and provide good end of life care for all, including those who have disabilities, have psychiatric illnesses, are refugees, are subject to abuse or who are in prisons. It suggests appropriate responses and offers a key to optimizing the human dignity of dying people and those they leave behind.
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THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE. Leonard A. Wisneski, Lucy Anderson, authors. Boca Raton : CRC Press, c2005. WB 880 W815s 2005

Combining Eastern and Western medicine, this work lays out the scientific underpinnings for the mind-body connection, documenting the interactions of the endocrine, immune, nervous, and stress systems that impact human functioning. It presents a theory of the physiology of spirituality, which is a theory of how subtle energy impacts physical and mental/emotional functioning. It presents the pineal as the master gland because of its function of translating environmental messages into neuroendocrine signals, and shows how the body's organs and cells are not isolated systems, but work together in an integrated fashion to maintain health.

Compiled by Helen Madden, MLS
Catalog Librarian