Humanity in Healthcare: The Heart and Soul of Medicine

Front Cover
Radcliffe Publishing, 2005 - Business & Economics - 257 pages
The impressive progress of medical science over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has tended to overshadow the art of caring for the patient and their families. This book aims to restore the balance by examining practical ways in which the arts can help health professionals to understand the experience of suffering and illness. Written by a family physician with 25 years experience, Humanity in Healthcare offers a broad perspective on the potential contribution of the arts toward fostering a humane approach to the care of those who are ill or suffering. It refers to a wide range of literature from prose and poetry, sociology, history, philosophy, politics, religion and spirituality. This book is an invaluable resource for all medical and healthcare professionals as well as students of the medical humanities.

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Contents

The philosophy of healthcare w
3
The art of seeing
19
The politics of health
31
the heart of medicine
51
Suffering and spirituality
53
The illness experience in literature
71
Chronic illness and the sociology of disability
87
Mental illness and the poetry of despair
105
The dynamics of healing
167
Uncertainty bewilderment and mystery
189
Compassion
201
Professional fulfilment
215
Professional virtue
233
Index
243
How hard do you want to work? 1
1
Salaried general practitioners 47
47

Narratives of abuse
121
Dances with death
137
the soul of healthcare
151
The history of healing
153
Postgraduate education 71
71
Working for a primary care trust 89
89
Assorted hobbies 109
109
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