In our student-led small-group, we held a dynamic discussion framed by the following questions:
- Reflect on what you would want for a loved one, for yourself, or for a patient as a physician upon a terminal illness diagnosis.
- What would be your priorities be if you had a terminal disease?
- At what point do we choose to switch from traditional medical care, where we put ourselves through procedures that reduce our immediate quality of life in hopes of extending our long-term lives, to hospice care, where we focus on making the best out of every day? Have you reflected on when that time would be? What would that look like?
- What is your understanding of hospice care? Did Letting Go change your perspective?
- How does age play a role? How does SES play a role?
- What are the ethics of mentioning expensive treatments?
- How do we teach and incentivize doctors to have these conversations? ACA tried, rebranded as “death panels”
- What are the pros/cons of hope?
- How and to what extent should family be involved in the decision making conversations?
- Do you think that your priorities will stay the same as they are now? Do you trust anyone to know what your answer is now?
- Do you think that the priorities of you, your loved one and your role as a physician will ever align? Why or why not?