“Doctors have a hard job. Not everybody wants to have these conversations.” This insight comes from Laura, one of the patients featured in our Difficult Conversations Workbook. Discussing her experience being diagnosed with advanced cancer, she tells us she doesn’t even remember having been given a prognosis. But she admits that at the time, she “didn’t really want one.”
When is the “right time” for a doctor to talk about prognosis? For that matter, when is a patient ready to hear what their prognosis may mean, which begs the question, “Who opens these conversations and when?” These questions deserve attention in a public forum, not just behind the closed doors of the doctor’s office.
We invite you to join us for our May 9th community workshop, “Getting Doctors And Patients On The Same Page” where a panel of experts will be speaking about challenges to communicating effectively within the medical encounter.
Sponsored by a grant from the Ottauquechee Health Foundation in collaboration with the Norman Williams Public Library, the free workshop will take place Thursday May 9, 6:30-8:30 pm at the library in Woodstock, VT.
The workshop will introduce attendees to our Difficult Conversations Workbook, a tool designed by the Bennington-based nonprofit Center for Communication in Medicine (CCM) to help facilitate healthcare dialogue by helping patients communicate with both loved ones and healthcare providers about hard-to-talk-about subjects such as prognosis, medical uncertainty, treatment options and quality of life–and to have these conversations sooner rather than later.
The workshop will feature a panel of experts with extensive experience helping patients manage physical, emotional and spiritual needs when facing serious chronic and incurable illnesses: physician Dr. Judith Hills, nurse practitioner Maggie Moore, Rabbi Dov Taylor, social worker Nancy Pessia and medical humanist Celia Engel Bandman.
This event is free and open to patients, family and healthcare providers. Space is limited. For more information or to pre-register call CCM at 802-442-5800 or email speaksooner@gmail.com .
We look forward to seeing you at the workshop!