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Saturday, January 3, 2015

    Why Are We Doing This?”: 

Journal of Palliative Medicine

To cite this article:
Back Anthony L., Rushton Cynda H., Kaszniak Alfred W., and Halifax Joan S.. Journal of Palliative Medicine. January 2015, 18(1): 26-30. doi:10.1089/jpm.2014.0115.
Published in Volume: 18 Issue 1: January 2, 2015

Author information

Anthony L. BackMD,1 Cynda H. RushtonPhD,2 Alfred W. KaszniakPhD,3 and Joan S. HalifaxPhD4
1Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington.
2Berman Institute of Bioethics; School of Nursing & Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
3Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
4Upaya Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Address correspondence to:
Anthony L. Back, MD
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
825 Eastlake Avenue E
Seattle, WA 98102
E-mail: 
Accepted October 5, 2014

ABSTRACT

Background: When the brutality of illness outstrips the powers of medical technology, part of the fallout lands squarely on front-line clinicians. 
In our experience, this kind of helplessness has cognitive, emotional, and somatic components.
Objectives: Could we approach our own experiences of helplessness differently? Here we draw on social psychology and neuroscience to define a new approach.
Methods: 
First, we show how clinicians can reframe helplessness as a self-barometer indicating their level of engagement with a patient. 
Second, we discuss how to shift deliberately from hyper- or hypo-engagement toward a constructive zone of clinical work, using an approach summarized as “RENEW”: recognizing, embracing, nourishing, embodying, and weaving—to enable clinicians from all professional disciplines to sustain their service to patients and families.

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