Death By Numbers

I was struck by some research I stumbled across this morning while I was doing some writing for We Can Die Better magazine. I want to share it with you as the enormity of the opportunity to do things differently around dying and death is eye opening and breathtaking.

“In a recent survey 99% of physicians reported that they feel it is important to have conversations with patients about their choices for the end-of-life. Yet only 14% of them are actually having these conversations.”

We can focus on training our 77,000 Canadian doctors for sure and yet lets not leave it all up to them.

How can we empower and train our over 406,000 Canadian nurses to have these critical bedside chats?

What can the 5.8 million Canadian baby boomers heading for the exit door over the next 10 to 20 years do to initiate these important conversations many doctors do not want to have? What can their families do?

Deaths in British Columbia that totaled 34,633 in 2014 are heading for north of 75,000 by the year 2030. Though we have 40,000 nurses in BC were are currently short 1,643 this year and the future looks grim for keeping pace with the demand for nurses. There are slightly in excess of 5,700 doctors in BC still well short of the needed number to satisfy patient demand.

So deaths, demands for medical services are rising and the supply of service providers is not keeping up. What a complex dilemma. What can be done?

Well, we can learn how to talk about dying and death with compassion, honesty, and freedom – A simple solution for complex times.

Currently under development and coming soon Alive in Death Training for Healthcare Professionals is a contribution Stephen Garrett brings to this conversation. End of Life Guide Training for one and all is available at endoflifeguidetraining.com.

So here are some potential resources

What role can a hospice society play?
Send your staff and volunteers to endoflifeguidetraining.com.

What role can the division of family practice play?
For now send your staff to endoflifeguidetraining.com and on July 15^th, 2016 send them to aliveindeath.ca a training program designed for healthcare professionals.