'Healthcare professionals spend much of their time listening to stories of sickness related by patients and their families. It thus seems appropriate that drama, which is primarily concerned with exploring narratives, change and crises and relies, like the clinical situation, on communication, is an ideal medium for healthcare professionals to gain new insights into care.' From the Introduction Good communication forms the heart of patient-centred care and is the cornerstone of a trusting relationship. Enhancing Compassion in End-of-Life Care Through Drama explores a broad range of plays from Greek tragedy to the present day and investigates how particular theatrical dynamics help to understand complexities in the setting of end-of-life care. It examines fresh ways to interpret the action and subtext represented on the stage and finds symmetries in a clinical context. It is ideal for use in a range of educational contexts, with practical ideas for workshops and summaries of key concepts in each chapter. This book will motivate all members of the multidisciplinary palliative care team including palliative care professionals, doctors, nurses, psychologists, spiritual advisers and social workers. Although based in the setting of palliative care, the learning points are relevant to all areas of clinical practice.
About the Author: Ewan Jeffrey Ewan has worked as a Lecturer in Drama at Queen's Belfast since 2009. His teaching and research focuses on post- war British Theatre and Historiography, Drama and Medical Ethics and the plays of Harold Pinter, as well as writing for the stage and integrating audio narrative into contemporary performance and installation. Ewan's recent work has been staged across the UK and in Poland. Ewan wrote The People Left Behind featured in the Belfast Festival 2011 and based on a British Academy- funded multimedia research project on missing people and bereavement. He is interested in developing his integrated approach to sound and performance for future research projects. David Jeffrey David is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was Academic Mentor in the Medical School at Dundee University until December 2012. He was a palliative care consultant in the Three Counties Cancer Centre Cheltenham after 20 years as a general practitioner in Evesham. He held a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 2006 and now is a member of the Advisory Council of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. David is a past Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Association of Palliative Medicine of Great Britain. His recent books include Against Physician Assisted Suicide: a palliative care perspective and Patient- centred Ethics and Communication at the End of Life.