A pioneer in defining the role of medical humanist; Ms. Bandman is a writer, co-founder of the Center for Communication in Medicine and co-author of CCM’s signature tool, SpeakSooner®: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations.
Dying is one of the most difficult subjects for patients and loved ones to talk about. It can also be uncomfortable for healthcare providers who may not be able to evaluate a patient’s willingness to face end-of-life care decisions. In a series of video interviews, I...
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to offer presentations at academic medical institutions. I’ve been impressed by their commitment to the study and practice of medical science but I noticed a missing component in the education of physicians. That is, there was...
In the video that accompanies SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations, we hear Fritz acknowledge that the rewards of continuing treatment more than exceed the risks but he recognizes there are no guarantees. Living with advanced prostate cancer,...
The role of spirituality in facing a health crisis varies from patient to patient. For healthcare providers, who rely on medical science, it can be a contentious subject. We posed the question of spirituality to a group of cancer patients who were interviewed for the...
The concept of hope can be elusive for those facing a cancer diagnosis. In the Center for Communication in Medicine’s (CCM) video Voices from the Lived World of Illness we hear Adrienne Barnes say, “Hope is different from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day...”...
As readers of my blog already know, I am drawn to thinking about the space between uncertainty and hope. As we turn the calendar to a new year, I often find myself revisiting Stanzas Concerning an Ecstasy Experienced in High Contemplation by St. John of the Cross,...
“Every day you wake up and your whole sense of self had changed whether you want it to or no. You have to think of yourself as different,” Adrienne Barnes, a patient with pancreatic cancer tells us.” Then, we hear Pete Johnson, who has been diagnosed with lung...
I’ve always been drawn to Jane Kenyon’s poem “Otherwise.” Her words help me to stop and reflect upon what’s happening in the moment. How often do we not pay attention and appreciate the little things in our daily lives? Kenyon wrote, “I got out of bed on two...
In the video Voices From the Lived World of Illness, Adrienne Barnes tells us, “I thought I could go into the doctor’s office and hear what they said and understand it all and go back and report it to my 9,000 family members...but it’s become a really big joke because...
In 1998, when I launched Writing Is Good Medicine® at the cancer center in Bennington, VT, it was based upon social psychologist James Pennebaker’s research on the health benefits of expressive writing. His studies found that patients with chronic conditions who wrote...
