Nurses week: celebrating GeriPal nurse scientists

Diagram by Florence Nightingale showing that deaths in the British Army during the Crimean war due to preventable infectious diseases (blue wedges) far outnumbered deaths due to wounds (red) or other causes (black).

by: Alex Smith @AlexSmithMD

It's nurses week! Please take a moment to thank the nurses in your life for the extraordinary work that they do.

For GeriPal, let's take a few moments to focus this year on thanking the many amazing nurse scientists in geriatrics and palliative care.

This is a list of a few of the many nurse scientists who have pushed hard on the boundaries of what is known in geriatrics and palliative care. I've just listed a first few to get the ball rolling.

Mary Naylor - Developed the Transitional Care Model, research focuses on helping older adults with chronic conditions receive high quality care and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations.
June Lunney - Described and provided empirical evidence for functional trajectories toward the end of life. People with cancer have a clear downward functional trajectory, whereas people with dementia slowly dwindle.
Meg Wallhagen - Put hearing loss on the map as a major but often overlooked issue in the elderly, not to mention the elderly in palliative care.
Marie Bakitas - Pioneer in palliative care in rural settings. Developed project ENABLE, a telephone based support intervention for people with advanced cancer.
Betty Ferrell - THE big name researcher in the field of pain and quality of life for patients with cancer.
Chris Miaskowski - Remarkable work in symptoms, symptom clusters, and translational research.
Mary Ersek - National leader in palliative care in the nursing home and palliative care for Veterans.
Judy Paice - Leading pain researcher nationally and internationally.

This list is by no means exhaustive! Not even close. But with your help it could be - please add to this list in the comments and via twitter.

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Lost in Translation: Google’s Translation of Palliative Care to ‘Do-Nothing Care’

by: Cynthia X. Pan, MD, FACP, AGSF (@Cxpan5X)

My colleagues often ask me: “Why are Chinese patients so resistant to hospice and palliative care?” “Why are they so unrealistic?” “Don’t they understand that death is part of life?” “Is it true that with Chinese patients you cannot discuss advance directives?”

As a Chinese speaking geriatrician and palliative care physician practicing in Flushing, NY, I have cared for countless Chinese patients with serious illnesses or at end of life. Invariably, when Chinese patients or families see me, they ask me if I speak Chinese. When I reply “I do” in Mandarin, the relief and instant trust I see on their faces make my day meaningful and worthwhile.

At my hospital, the patient population is about 30% Asian, with the majority of these being Chinese. Most of these patients require language interpretation. It becomes an interesting challenge and opportunity, as we often need to discuss advance directives, goals of care, and end of life care options…

Elderhood: Podcast with Louise Aronson

In this week's podcast we talk with Louise Aronson MD, MFA, Professor of Geriatrics at UCSF about her new book Elderhood, available for purchase now for delivery on the release date June 11th.

We are one of the first to interview Louise, as she has interviews scheduled with other lesser media outlets to follow (CBS This Morning and Fresh Air with Terry...somebody).

This book is tremendously rich, covering a history of aging/geriatrics, Louise's own journey as a geriatrician facing burnout, aging and death of family of Louise's members, insightful stories of patients, and more.

We focus therefore on the 3 main things we think our listeners and readers will be interested in.

First - why the word "Elder" and "Elderhood" when JAGS/AGS and others recently decided that the preferred terminology was "older adult"?

Second - Robert Butler coined the term ageism in 1969 - where do we see ageism in contemporary writing/thinking? We focus on Louise's…

Psychedelics: Podcast with Ira Byock

In this week's podcast, we talk with Dr. Ira Byock, a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care through the end of life.

Ira Byock wrote a provocative and compelling paper in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management titled, "Taking Psychedelics Seriously."

In this podcast we challenge Ira Byock about the use of psychedelics for patients with serious and life-limiting illness. Guest host Josh Biddle (UCSF Palliative care fellow) asks, "Should clinicians who prescribe psychedelics try them first to understand what their patient's are going through?" The answer is "yes" -- read or listen on for more!

While you're reading, I'll just go over and lick this toad.

-@AlexSmithMD

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Transcript
Eric: Welcome to the GeriPal Podcast. This is Eric Widera.

Alex: This is Alex Smith.

Eric: Alex, I spy someone in our …

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