Speaking Human: A Journey in Palliative Medicine

The ongoing evolution and application of health sciences has recast humanity’s relationship with health and mortality.The transformative changes in modern medicine exist in an environment of high speed and efficient care that frequently fails to slow down enough to fully appreciate the person, to speak human. Palliative medicine seeks not just to manage symptoms but to utilize sensemaking and assist in navigating the complexities of life-limiting illness. These stories traverse a journey into learning the skills necessary to provide this specialized care. In this book, Dr. Durie, a palliative care nurse practitioner, shares exemplar stories as tools framing how to engage in critically important conversations.

The work spans twenty-five years of practice and captures the unforeseen challenges born from the COVID-19 pandemic. Honest, raw, and unfiltered, it is the author’s hope that fellow clinicians will borrow and tailor language for their own practice and that readers not in healthcare might better understand what palliative care can offer.