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.
There are no rules for proper behavior, conversation or actions when there’s an advancement of a serious illness and no viable treatment options. Patients can find themselves confused when trying to communicate with family and friends about a dire prognosis and an...
In a 1988 Village Voice article “The Land of The Sick,” Paul Cowan spoke of his experience of illness and declared, “It is a world that has its own language, its own geography, its own authority figures and its own calendar dictated by the changes in one’s body or by...
In my work as a medical humanist, I would often hear cancer patients talk about anxiously waiting for appointments, test results and possible side effects of treatments, as if these were common experiences in medical care. With these concerns in mind, I offered...
I have found that many patients feel the need to protect their loved ones from hearing about the physical and emotional ordeal of living with serious illness. An example of this dynamic emerged in the video that accompanies SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult...
I recently discovered an article I wrote titled “A Medical Humanist Says Good-bye” that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 9, 2008). It recounted the role of medical humanist I created at the cancer center in Bennington, Vermont and...
In the video accompanying SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations we hear Fritz, who’s living with advanced prostate cancer, acknowledge that the rewards of continuing treatment more than exceed the risks but understands that there are no guarantees....
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...
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,...
When facing a cancer diagnosis, you quickly learn who shows up and who retreats. The impact of illness on relationships was one of the topics discussed with four cancer patients in the Center for Communication in Medicine’s video “Voices from the Lived World of...
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,...
