Building resilience: an innovative reflective writing method for clinical palliative care – the 55 word story

Finding innovative reflective self-care techniques reduces the potential for burnout and the stress associated with attending to the needs of the very ill and the dying. Time is often a barrier to self care; and narrative methodologies often seem to require too much time or writing ability. We offer a novel, time efficient, practical approach for debut at AAHPM/HPNA that is useful to almost everyone.The 55 word medical narrative about clinical encounters from the perspective of the clinician is the self care therapeutic tool offered during this session. Participants will experience and leave empowered to approach the medical narrative in a brief but meaningful way. In this workshop session, participants will be introduced to pertinent research and content on narrative medicine, and will participate in writing a 55 word story about a personal or professional encounter in hospice and palliative care, or about a topic that they want to explore in palliative care such as hope, compassion, doubt, or guilt.Participants will share their 55 word story in dyads, give feedback on this method and its impact on resilience and reflection.Objectives:1.         Describe a novel, effective yet brief framework for the use of medical narrative as a reflective exercise for increasing resilience within the larger literature of narrative medicine methods.2.         Demonstrate and experience the 55 word medical narrative as a brief but effective reflective exercise.3.         Integrate the 55 word story narrative method into various clinical care and teaching settings in palliative care

Having Healing Conversations

How do we have conversations about pain that are in and of themselves healing? Often, clinicians dread having conversations about pain. This session will introduce a map of how to have healing conversations about this challenging topic. Empathy and responding to emotion are key in healing conversations

Complex Palliative Care Pain Management Requires an Integrative Approach

Pain is complex, and to address pain well, it requires us to appreciate the multiple factors that create pain in a person. The complexity of pain requires more than the conventional approaches usually used to treat pain. Integrative, healing modalities are needed to address pain comprehensively and effectively with a minimum of adverse effects

Incorporating the Arts and Humanities in Palliative Medicine Education

The arts and humanities allow the teaching of palliative medicine to come alive by exploring what is often regarded as the most frightening outcome of the illness experience – death and dying. Palliative medicine focuses on the relief of suffering, but how can suffering be understood if the story of the patient is not told through prose, poetry, music, and images? This article describes how teaching can incorporate the power of story through the arts to enrich the palliative medicine curriculum. Also presented is a developmental schema, devised by Bernice Harper, whereby learners can assess and understand their journey as health professionals as they increase their capacity to cope emotionally with the dying process of their patients. Narrative medicine also serves to ground related teaching about pain, near death awareness, and grief and loss in the experience of the patient and family as well as that of the health professional. Art is created in relationship- centered care in which the clinician and patient interact through the telling and listening to stories. Relationship is established through this acknowledgment of the shared humanity of patient and clinician.

Incorporating the Arts and Humanities in Palliative Medicine Education

The arts and humanities allow the teaching of palliative medicine to come alive by exploring what is often regarded as the most frightening outcome of the illness experience – death and dying. Palliative medicine focuses on the relief of suffering, but how can suffering be understood if the story of the patient is not told through prose, poetry, music, and images? This article describes how teaching can incorporate the power of story through the arts to enrich the palliative medicine curriculum. Also presented is a developmental schema, devised by Bernice Harper, whereby learners can assess and understand their journey as health professionals as they increase their capacity to cope emotionally with the dying process of their patients. Narrative medicine also serves to ground related teaching about pain, near death awareness, and grief and loss in the experience of the patient and family as well as that of the health professional. Art is created in relationship- centered care in which the clinician and patient interact through the telling and listening to stories. Relationship is established through this acknowledgment of the shared humanity of patient and clinician.

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Integrative Palliative Care

Integrative medicine (IM) use is widespread among individuals living with serious illness. There is a natural alignment between the fields of IM and palliative care (PC) rooted in their shared core values. Integrative palliative care (IPC) is an emerging focus within the field of PC that aims to broaden the healing toolkit available to patients with serious illness by combining standard-of-care biomedical treatments with evidence-informed integrative and complementary medicine practices with the goal of enhancing quality of life at every stage of a person\u27s health journey. This article is an evidence-based guide to incorporating IPC practices into the care of seriously ill individuals

Qualitative Aspects of Nasal Irrigation Use by Patients With Chronic Sinus Disease in a Multimethod Study

PURPOSE We qualitatively assessed attitudes regarding use of hypertonic saline nasal irrigation (HSNI) for frequent rhinosinusitis and chronic sinonasal symptoms in a 3-part, multimethod study. METHODS We conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with 28 participants who recently used nasal irrigation in studies assessing HSNI. RESULTS Four themes emerged: (1) HSNI improved self-management of sinus symptoms, creating a sense of empowerment; (2) HSNI produced rapid and long-term improvement in quality of life; (3) participants identified discomfort, time, and mild side effects as barriers to HSNI use; and (4) participants identified aspects of training and at-home use that overcame these barriers. CONCLUSION HSNI is a safe, well-tolerated, inexpensive, effective, long-term therapy that patients with chronic sinonasal symptoms can and will use at home with minimal training and follow-up. Success with HSNI will likely be improved by patient education