title: Educating our patients about life and the end of life: toward a pedagogy of dying.
abstract: There is an extensive literature on how physicians can best educate their patients about living healthier-one might call it a "pedagogy of living." In this essay, I suggest that physicians develop a "pedagogy of dying" for their adult patients: educating them about how they can approach death with some measure of grace and dignity, as consistent with their wants as possible, and cognizant of the final reality we all face. This process happens in the ambulatory settings as part of ongoing care and precedes any serious illness or the crisis of hospitalization. I draw on known models for communicating effectively, my own practice experience, and the disciplines of palliative care and bioethics in asking physicians to consider developing such a "pedagogy of dying," a kind of anticipatory guidance toward aging, infirmity, and, ultimately, death [corrected].
authors.affiliation: From the Institute for Studies in History, Anthropology, and Archeology, University of El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador; and the Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland. wventres@gmail.com.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ventres
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D035843:Biomedical Research; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards
keywords: Education; End of Life Care; Medical Ethics; Palliative Care; Physician-Patient Relations