Hospice and Palliative Care: Conversations at the Bedside

Course overview

Questions frequently arise during care of seriously ill and declining patients, both from them and their family members. What should we say and how does a therapist talk about such sensitive issues in a context of both hope and reality? This course builds on the trust developed in the patient-therapist relationship to provide concrete examples of conversations around disease process, treatment effects, levels of exertion, energy conservation, and being open to possibilities of improvement and decline. We then move on to identify and explore the psychosocial and spiritual concerns that develop from the effects and losses of advanced disease states. The course concludes outlining sample documentation that justifies this supportive care in clinical therapy practice.