The Real “Bucket List”
Author: Dr. Beth Robinson | Filed under: BlogA recent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman tells the story of two men who have been diagnosed with cancer and been given a year or less to live. They create a list of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket.”
For the premise of the movie to work, the cancer patients have to have a doctor who is willing to be honest and tell his patients that they have a terminal illness and a limited time to live. Interestingly, research shows that most cancer doctors avoid telling their patients that the end is near. Only one third of doctors discussed end-of-life care with their patients, while two-thirds avoided the discussion.
The patients who knew they were nearing the end of their lives spent less time in the hospital during their final days and their loved ones were more at peace after they died.
Doctors seem to mistakenly believe that talking about death will make you die quicker. Yet patients crave these conversations because they want to know what they are up against. Without honest conversations about the end-of-life, patients feel abandoned because they have to face death alone because no one will discuss it.
Based on this research, it is apparent that talking about death has benefits for patients with cancer. There may be benefits for the rest of us as well. None of us know how long we are going to live. We all of the gift of only today. If we all acknowledged today is the only day we know we have, how would it change our day . . . our hours . . . our minutes?
We might all need to pay a little more attention to our “bucket list”.
I totally agree with this blog. I guess anyone who works in our field probably would or should. I look at a kid in the toughest of situations and wonder how a parent can mess up a kid sooo bad, a kid they gave birth to, it’s mind boggling. And so difficult to convince that child that he is loved by his parent when the parent may be sick from drugs, alcohol, etc.
Having been a teacher before a case manager (taking my exams for LPC) I believe it is so important for adults in these kids lives to be supportive and encouraging, especially teachers who have these kids for most of the day. Stick with them and provide positive words of encouragement they may never hear. I may have gotten way off subject lol…but I agree, parents need to grow up and be parents…those that have their kids in the home as well…time to stop being “buddies” and love our kids, guide them in Christ!