July 25, 2019

End of Life Care in the ICU

One in five US residents receives ICU care at the end of life. In this episode of Critical Matters, we discuss different aspects of end of life care in the ICU.

Our guest is Dr. BJ Miller, a palliative care physician at the University of California, San Francisco and former Executive Director of Zen Hospice Project. He is a powerful advocate for the role of our senses, community, and presence in delivering palliative care and for ushering in a new perspective on living with death.

Additional Resources:
What really matters at the end of life, BJ Miller presented at TED 2015: https://bit.ly/1PlAuNP
Clinician-Family Communication About Patients' Values and Preferences in Intensive Care Units.
Scheunemann LP et al, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2019: https://bit.ly/2LEH0Y5
A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger: https://amzn.to/30VVWEV
Vital Talk courses, a set of online and in person courses designed to equip clinicians with the tools to have difficult conversations with patients and families:https://bit.ly/30SPrm6

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: https://amzn.to/2JPJjFQ
Mortally Wounded: Stories of Soul Pain, Death and Healing by Michael Kearney: https://amzn.to/2YkDPuF
Bering Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande: https://amzn.to/2GsTXjH
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker: https://amzn.to/2SyY7LI