As a dual board–certified medical oncologist and palliative care physician, I respected her hopefulness and recognized the challenges that I faced as a result of the complex and nuanced conversations that had occurred before I became involved in her care. I also recognized her profound suffering and that of her family, both because of my conversations with them and because of the heaviness I felt in my heart when entering her room. I suspect that every oncologist knows a version of the above scenario, and knows that heaviness of heart, too.
As physicians, we are often most comfortable in the medical and fact-based realms. However, in my palliative care training, I was taught to listen to the so-called limbic music in a room to try to identify the causes of suffering. Often the solution in a difficult clinical encounter lies in addressing emotional and spiritual needs as well as physical ones. Our team aggressively managed the patient's pain and nausea and then explored her suffering. As a member of a three-generation ranching family, she had been physically active until her diagnosis, and felt betrayed by her body. In the hospital, without her daily dose of open sky, she felt trapped. She did not have a will and worried about who would run the ranch after she passed. Her sons had a contentious relationship and often disagreed about how to care for her. She was overwhelmed and, frankly, not ready to die. She suffered in many realms—physical, emotional, interpersonal, financial and existential—and her suffering affected her decision making.
By identifying and addressing the causes of her suffering in the context of our goals-of-care discussions, we helped her to understand that she was not going to regain the physical ability to run the ranch, but that she might be able to see it again, that we could begin to address some of her financial and relationship concerns, and that those things were possible without more chemotherapy. Before her death in the hospital, she had completed a medical power of attorney, had met with her sons and a family lawyer to make a will, and had the opportunity to grieve openly with her sons about her anticipated death. From an educational perspective, an oncology fellow, resident, and nurse practitioner learned to recognize and assess “total pain,” Dame Cicely Saunder's concept of suffering that encompasses physical, psychological, social, and spiritual domains.1
This vignette illustrates how palliative oncology experts can influence patient care and education in meaningful ways, and also how palliative care training adds a different dimension to the core skills that all oncologists use.