Customer Reviews

Textbook of Palliative Medicine

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many times, I see a textbook as a reference, but to actually read the text beyond a reference point is absolutely stultifying -- akin to reading a telephone book. I'm pleased to report that this text is highly readable and actually has a method (Oslerian) to its organizational presentation.

I appreciate the homage this text pays to historical pioneers as well as present-day leaders in the field. All of us stand on the shoulders of giants -- and it's good medicine to understand the evolution of the field. This is true with respect to public policy, historical events, financial realities, disease epidemics and drug development.

The vast majority of palliative care throughout the world remains lay-led. This will not change in the foreseeable future. In some ways, this core understanding provides a thoroughly pragmatic and realistic grounding of palliative care within medicine. But what this textbook gently conveys is the notion that professional leadership and academic tethering of the field makes a genuine difference. We can't be good at everything -- and letting go of hubris (no matter the academic recognition or professional laurels) is the first step in caring for others. We can -- and must -- learn from others -- and that's why textbooks are important.

The textbook does not preach, it does not scold, and it does not trick. When I come to read this textbook, I don't want or need riddles or contrived intuition -- I just need some background and thoughtful options. I think the authors have aimed well! Because the "certification" of palliative care in the USA is so new (2006), some of the text materials in the field were brought too quick to market (in my humble opinion) and really lack for poor or cursory editing.

Like palliative care itself, developing a textbook is a process. I hope there will be a next edition and I'm sure it will be better. One can always be a critic -- to be sure -- but actually putting a good textbook together is a real feat and I'm humbled to use and read this one!

Dear all,
I have purchased this volume of book for reference as I planned to work in an institute heavily involved in palliative medicine and care of elderly suffering from terminal illnesses.
I found this book very comprehensive and I can get most useful information from it on nearly every topics that are relevant to my clinical practice.
It is a very good reference for those who are working for the benefit of elderly who suffered from incurable disease, but one wish to maintain their quality of lives at the end of life care setting.
I highly recommend this book to colleagues in geriatric field!
BR,
Aaron Lee.

This is a fine book that is why I am giving it five stars even though I returned it. I purchased it for a class and found out that you can get the entire book in pdf form free online. So I went that route, it saved my wallet and my back (this is a huge heavy book to carry to class) now I can just have it on my laptop for free. I just googled "Textbook of Palliative medicine PDF" and it was my first hit, so it should be pretty easy to find if you want to save some money and not carry around a really heavy book!

I do understand that some people do prefer print to electronic though, so that is why I still gave it a good rating.