Interpersonal verses Impersonal thoughts about death and dying

In this blog I'll continue to focus on the text reading from this week. In particular the section about the role of the health care provider in the process of their patients who may be facing death. Often patients and their families express discouragement and disappointment in the way their health care provider has notified them of terminal illnesses, their treatment during the progression of the disease, and even the actual transition to death itself.

There is a necessary balance that health care providers should maintain so that they are able to express to their patients and patents' families that they are connected to them personally, yet not so personally connected that their professional judgement is altered in any way. It is important to keep the focus on the needs of the patient and their family, so that they don't feel responsible for consoling the health care provider.

This concept is presented in the text as intrapersonal death over impersonal death. Impersonal death would be when a health care provider simply goes through the motions of reading a chart, making rounds, or visiting with the patient routinely without expressing or showing any degree of understanding or connection to the person as a whole. Often this is a coping mechanism, yet it is not best for those going through the stages of dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. As noted on page 82, it is the truly gifted practitioners who is able to attain intrapersonal and impersonal balance when conveying emotional connection without compromising the needs of the patient or his/her own personal judgement.