List 4: Advice to Doctors

1. The person you are treating is not just a “patient,” but an individual, with a life, a brain, and a heart.

2. Listen to those you treat and their loved ones.

3. Give essential information. Be honest, and don’t abolish hope.

4. Be kind and respectful. Let the people in your care keep their dignity.

5. Encourage those for whom you care to deal with each item as it arises, and not to anticipate several steps in advance. Understand that this is easier said than done.

6. Realize what you do and don’t know. If you don’t know something, learn it or ask someone who does.

7. Treat as you would want to be treated. The white coat doesn’t make you immune. One day, you may be on the other side.

8. Relieve pain. Be generous with anesthesia.

9. Alleviate anxiety and fear. Cancer can be scary.

10. Cure us or put us into remission, if you can. If not, help each of us live what we perceive to be the best life possible.