Wednesday, January 7, 2009
More Good Blogs to Follow
I have been following Jessica Knapp's blog The Good Death since she came to my attention in some Google Alerts during the run up to the voting on the Washington State I-1000 Medically Assisted Death Initiative. From her About Me Section:
I have always been interested in the way people communicate. In 2004, I earned my MA in communications from Fordham University. Before that, I worked for two years as a research assistant in bioethics, and during that time, I found myself particularly interested in the issues surrounding the way we talk about death and dying. Over the past year, I had a health scare myself, and closely following that, my grandfather died in about the worst possible way you can—in the hospital, hooked up to tubes, with family not completely sure whether they were doing the right thing by letting him go. All of these factors have led me to decide to pursue my PhD in communications with the goal of improving the way we communicate about death. It is something everyone will face, and in America, most of us are afraid to talk about. We need to get better at talking about it so that we can have better deaths. Also, because death can be such a dark and trying subject to deal with, and because I am also a student of media studies, you will see some pop-culture references to death on this site.
Here is a sampling of her posts:
Cybertime - Describing her mother opening an unused email account that her deceased husband had been sending emails to before he died.
Televised Assisted Suicide - About Kevorkian and the recent televising of the act in Britain.
Fantastic Death - An excerpt from a recent book she read.
Another blog I only discovered last week is the only blog I know written by a hospice chaplain. We practically have a hospice team of blogs now! The blog Rainy Nights is written by Ken Bradstock (D. Min.) and combines some personal reflections, some patient stories (names and details changed for HIPPA), and the occasional poem.
Here are some examples of his posts:
How Nice - a poem about the difference between clinical staff and adminsitration.
Book of James - How do you minister a minister?
And lastly, Confessions of a Young Looking Social Worker should hopefully intrigue you enough to check the blog out. (Yes! Now we have a core hospice/palliative care team) The blog is a mix of personal reflections (i.e. the White Sox) and the occasional fictionalized/altered accounts of interactions with staff and patients. There have not been a lot of hospice related posts lately, but here are a few choice ones:
Cross It Off The List - Taking a patient skydiving? Call your hospice social worker!
Ruth - "My favorite patient is dying..."
If you know of any other good hospice & palliative medicine oriented blogs feel free to post them in the comments or email me at ctsinclair - a - t - gmail d0t com.
Hospice & Palliative Medicine BlogsCybertime - Describing her mother opening an unused email account that her deceased husband had been sending emails to before he died.
Televised Assisted Suicide - About Kevorkian and the recent televising of the act in Britain.
Fantastic Death - An excerpt from a recent book she read.
Another blog I only discovered last week is the only blog I know written by a hospice chaplain. We practically have a hospice team of blogs now! The blog Rainy Nights is written by Ken Bradstock (D. Min.) and combines some personal reflections, some patient stories (names and details changed for HIPPA), and the occasional poem.
Here are some examples of his posts:
How Nice - a poem about the difference between clinical staff and adminsitration.
Book of James - How do you minister a minister?
And lastly, Confessions of a Young Looking Social Worker should hopefully intrigue you enough to check the blog out. (Yes! Now we have a core hospice/palliative care team) The blog is a mix of personal reflections (i.e. the White Sox) and the occasional fictionalized/altered accounts of interactions with staff and patients. There have not been a lot of hospice related posts lately, but here are a few choice ones:
Cross It Off The List - Taking a patient skydiving? Call your hospice social worker!
Ruth - "My favorite patient is dying..."
If you know of any other good hospice & palliative medicine oriented blogs feel free to post them in the comments or email me at ctsinclair - a - t - gmail d0t com.
(in order of age of blog)
**just added**
- Hospice Blog by Hospice Guy (July 2004) (Administrator)
- Bioethics Discussion Blog by Maurice Bernstein (July 2004) (Doctor)
- Rainy Nights by Ken Bradstock, D. Min (August 2004) (D. Min)**
- Pallimed by Rosielle, Sinclair, and Quinn (June 2005) (Doc, Doc,
gooseNP) - War on Doctors/Pain Crisis by Alex DeLuca (February 2006) (Doctor)
- Confessions of a Young Lookking Social Worker (March 2006) (LCSW)**
- Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog by Frances Shani Parker (January 2007) (Writer)
- Reflections by Dr. Bruce Campbell (April 2007) (Doctor)
- Two Women Blogging by Jay and MPJ (April 2007) (Doctor)
- Medical Futility by Thaddeus Pope (July 2007) (Law Professor)
- Hospice Foundation of America Blog edited by Krista Renenger (August 2007) (Organization)
- Goodbyes by Debra Bradley Ruder (February 2008) (Writer)
- The Good Death by Jessica Knapp, MA (February 2008) (PhD student)**
- Palliative Care Success by Tim Cousounis (March 2008) (Executive)
- DNR/DNI by Leo Levi (April 2008) (ICU Nurse)
- The Checkout Line by Judy Bachrach (May 2008) (Writer)
- Pallimed: Arts & Humanities by Amber Wollesen and Amy Clarkson (May 2008) (Docs)
- Pallimed: Case Conferences by Institute to Enhance Palliative Care (May 2008) (Org)
- Center for Practical Bioethics Blog by various writers (June 2008) (Organization)
- Dethmama Chronicles by Dethmama & Insurance Guru (June 2008) (Nurse and Admin)
- The Journey Learned by Dr. M (September 2008) (Doctor)
- About Palliative Care by Angela Morrow (Start date?) (Nurse)