Learn to help others understand, cope with, and even overcome emotional and physical suffering. Suffering: Psychological and Social Aspects in Loss, Grief, and Care is a unique and insightful volume of observations, anecdotes, and case studies about suffering. In this important book, doctors, nurses, teachers, funeral directors, and members of the clergy discuss the crucial physical, emotional, and psychological issues that patients and their families must confront when death is imminent. They address a variety of topics including terminal illness, chronic illness, loss, grief, and pain....

Offering practical suggestions for humane caregiving, this valuable new book is aimed at all providers of medical care. This compassionate volume focuses on the development of the thanatology curriculum--teaching caregivers who are just beginning their professional lives to be adequately prepared to deal appropriately with dying patients and their families and to cope with the personal toll exacted by this aspect of medical practice. At a time when increasingly complex medical technology promotes more impersonal contact between caregivers and patients, the contributors emphasize the...