Beth Fahlberg
The following videos raise awareness about end-of-life and palliative care issues, and are appropriate for use in education and discussion.
American medicine's success at fighting disease and extending life has created a new problem. That is, the vast majority of patients can now expect to die in a place (a hospital or nursing home) and in a way (with increased quantity, but reduced quality, of life) that most wouldn't choose if only asked. Talking about dying, which is as natural as birth, is now taboo. And, the reality is patients and families are suffering needlessly. It is a problem we never intended to create and one that must be solved, but how?
Consider the Conversation is a remarkable, thought-provoking film that looks at many of the issues that we will all face at the end-of-life. It opens the floodgates of thought and conversation on this most difficult and often taboo subject. It helps to illustrate many areas of improvement in our health care system. I would encourage everyone to watch this important film including physicians, healthcare workers, patients and families. This film will help us to be better physicians, better nurses, better patients and better people.
FRONTLINE follows renowned writer and surgeon Atul Gawande as he explores the relationships doctors have with patients who are nearing the end of life.
Honoring Choices Minnesota hopes to inspire and support many community-based conversations regarding end-of-life care planning. We urge Minnesotans seeking to start such conversations in their family, faith, cultural or community group to use this 'toolkit' of video, text and web-links to support these conversations.
Documentaries often deal in sadness and Netflix’s new short Extremis is no exception. A film on end-of-life care that is shot entirely in an Intensive Care Unit.
I am a nursing educator, researcher & author interested in palliative care in heart failure and evidence-based innovative teaching & learning approaches. I am also a mom, wife, sister and daugther ...
