Iona Heath – författare

Iona Heath relates the importance that John Berger's work and friendship had on her working life as a GP. It includes extracts from letters that span 20 years of her correspondence with John Berger.In this book, Iona Heath writes about reading John Berger's writing over more than 50 years and her friendship and correspondence with him over the best part of 20 years. Dr Heath found that both of these interacted profoundly with her work as a general practitioner in a deprived urban area in London. For Iona Heath, general practice is a quite extraordinary undertaking: every working day, sitting with a succession of unique individuals, each worried about some aspect of their health or life circumstances, many burdened by unspoken fears, and each seeking some form of answer. Starting with A Fortunate Man, when she was an ignorant but hopeful undergraduate medical student, she found reading John Berger on any subject had something new to tell her about the aspirations and detail of her work: clues about how to look and how to listen and much else. Later when they started to correspond, Iona Heath found herself in the privileged position of being able to check her understanding directly with the writer and on each occasion found deeper levels of awareness and insight. She is convinced that reading John Berger made her a better doctor.

Violence within the family, whether directed against children, partners or elders, profoundly disturbs our notions of what the relationship between the family and the discipline of general practice should be. GPs are doctors to whole families and yet their relationships with patients are individual ones, drawing their strength from the principles of confidentiality, mutual trust and positive regard. Violence and abuse within families necessarily challenges all of these, creating a profusion of ethical, interpersonal and practical difficulties and dilemmas. At the same time the nature of general practice confers unique opportunities to deal effectively with family violence.GPs and GP registrars will find this book an invaluable and empowering resource. It brings together a broad range of expertise and opinion from relevant specialities and disciplines and sets family violence in its historical, epidemiological and societal context. It describes in separate sections, child abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse, its presentations, diagnosis and treatment; and suggests ways forward for its prevention and early detection. It draws throughout on the experience of GPs, health visitors and social workers, providing practical safe and workable guidelines.Family violence can present to any member of the primary care team and there is much here that will be of relevance and interest to them all.

Iona Heath relates the importance that John Berger's work and friendship had on her working life as a GP. It includes extracts from letters that span 20 years of her correspondence with John Berger.In this book, Iona Heath writes about reading John Berger's writing over more than 50 years and her friendship and correspondence with him over the best part of 20 years. Dr Heath found that both of these interacted profoundly with her work as a general practitioner in a deprived urban area in London. For Iona Heath, general practice is a quite extraordinary undertaking: every working day, sitting with a succession of unique individuals, each worried about some aspect of their health or life circumstances, many burdened by unspoken fears, and each seeking some form of answer. Starting with A Fortunate Man, when she was an ignorant but hopeful undergraduate medical student, she found reading John Berger on any subject had something new to tell her about the aspirations and detail of her work: clues about how to look and how to listen and much else. Later when they started to correspond, Iona Heath found herself in the privileged position of being able to check her understanding directly with the writer and on each occasion found deeper levels of awareness and insight. She is convinced that reading John Berger made her a better doctor.

Iona Heath relates the importance that John Berger's work and friendship had on her working life as a GP. It includes extracts from letters that span 20 years of her correspondence with John Berger.In this book, Iona Heath writes about reading John Berger's writing over more than 50 years and her friendship and correspondence with him over the best part of 20 years. Dr Heath found that both of these interacted profoundly with her work as a general practitioner in a deprived urban area in London. For Iona Heath, general practice is a quite extraordinary undertaking: every working day, sitting with a succession of unique individuals, each worried about some aspect of their health or life circumstances, many burdened by unspoken fears, and each seeking some form of answer. Starting with A Fortunate Man, when she was an ignorant but hopeful undergraduate medical student, she found reading John Berger on any subject had something new to tell her about the aspirations and detail of her work: clues about how to look and how to listen and much else. Later when they started to correspond, Iona Heath found herself in the privileged position of being able to check her understanding directly with the writer and on each occasion found deeper levels of awareness and insight. She is convinced that reading John Berger made her a better doctor.

Iona Heath relates the importance that John Berger's work and friendship had on her working life as a GP. It includes extracts from letters that span 20 years of her correspondence with John Berger.In this book, Iona Heath writes about reading John Berger's writing over more than 50 years and her friendship and correspondence with him over the best part of 20 years. Dr Heath found that both of these interacted profoundly with her work as a general practitioner in a deprived urban area in London. For Iona Heath, general practice is a quite extraordinary undertaking: every working day, sitting with a succession of unique individuals, each worried about some aspect of their health or life circumstances, many burdened by unspoken fears, and each seeking some form of answer. Starting with A Fortunate Man, when she was an ignorant but hopeful undergraduate medical student, she found reading John Berger on any subject had something new to tell her about the aspirations and detail of her work: clues about how to look and how to listen and much else. Later when they started to correspond, Iona Heath found herself in the privileged position of being able to check her understanding directly with the writer and on each occasion found deeper levels of awareness and insight. She is convinced that reading John Berger made her a better doctor.

‘Doctors will love this book. It speaks to them in profoundly personal ways, and also in stimulating intellectual ways [and] full of source material to help doctors and educators shape a better world in medicine.’ – Moira Stewart, PhD, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Centre for Studies in Family Medicine, Western University, CanadaWhat does it mean to be a good doctor? How do we learn to respond well to suffering—both our patients’ and our own—and to sustain ourselves in systems that so often undermine those very values we must hold on to?In this anthology a group of physicians from five countries—ranging from newly qualified doctors to internationally recognized scholars—come together to reflect on the tensions and promises of current medical education and practice. Making a Good Doctor is a weave of academic inquiry, personal narrative, literary reflection, and pedagogical dialogue.Across eighteen chapters, the book explores the emergence of medicalization, over-diagnosis, alienation, burnout, moral injury, and the commodification of care. It celebrates the joy of medicine, its power to heal— the transformative force of listening, of dialogue, of shared presence.Key FeaturesOffers a uniquely holistic combination of personal stories and critical perspectives on current medical education and practiceBuilds around a person-centred ideal that sets the humanity of both patients and professionals at the centre of medical education and practiceExpresses ideas and ideals that have been tested in educational practice and have solid theoretical underpinnings in medical philosophy and psychological and pedagogical researchThis book is directed toward the medical practitioner, educator, or student interested in understanding more about the forces that shape, and distort, medical culture and healthcare systems. It is for those interested in developing insight; in learning techniques for collaboration, resistance, resilience, and change.A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

‘Doctors will love this book. It speaks to them in profoundly personal ways, and also in stimulating intellectual ways [and] full of source material to help doctors and educators shape a better world in medicine.’ – Moira Stewart, PhD, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Centre for Studies in Family Medicine, Western University, CanadaWhat does it mean to be a good doctor? How do we learn to respond well to suffering—both our patients’ and our own—and to sustain ourselves in systems that so often undermine those very values we must hold on to?In this anthology a group of physicians from five countries—ranging from newly qualified doctors to internationally recognized scholars—come together to reflect on the tensions and promises of current medical education and practice. Making a Good Doctor is a weave of academic inquiry, personal narrative, literary reflection, and pedagogical dialogue.Across eighteen chapters, the book explores the emergence of medicalization, over-diagnosis, alienation, burnout, moral injury, and the commodification of care. It celebrates the joy of medicine, its power to heal— the transformative force of listening, of dialogue, of shared presence.Key FeaturesOffers a uniquely holistic combination of personal stories and critical perspectives on current medical education and practiceBuilds around a person-centred ideal that sets the humanity of both patients and professionals at the centre of medical education and practiceExpresses ideas and ideals that have been tested in educational practice and have solid theoretical underpinnings in medical philosophy and psychological and pedagogical researchThis book is directed toward the medical practitioner, educator, or student interested in understanding more about the forces that shape, and distort, medical culture and healthcare systems. It is for those interested in developing insight; in learning techniques for collaboration, resistance, resilience, and change.A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

This third volume in the Companion to Medical Humanities series considers the concept of treatment as an active process which produces an outcome, be it effective, inappropriate or inadequate. It invites the reader to examine the relevance of the patients'' belief in any given treatment and their confidence in the practitioner. Against a person-cent

This collection that was first published in 2009, and is recommended reading for doctors and others includes: The Green Bookshop opens its doors; Books that won prizes; Great books that should have won prizes; Two books by one writer; A handful of classic novels; Short stories and essays; Books and the cinema; Biography and memoirs; Classic books about general practice; Best new books about general practice; Consultation and communication; Education for primary care; Psychiatry, psychology and a bit of philosophy, and Reading for pleasure.

The phrase ''medical humanities'' has a currency that is wider than any agreement as to what it means, though those engaged in the field usually know what they are attempting. This volume examines the idea of ''symptom'' as a route to understanding the structure of clinical practice. Actual symptoms are always experienced by real, actual individuals - however much those experiences are mediated by language, culture, expectation and the conventions of the clinical consultation. And this in turn is important because it reminds us that health, illness, well-being, suffering are first and foremost aspects of experience. This book asks questions - and offers answers - about the meaning of actual symptoms and of the concept of ''symptom'' as a prelude to a cumulative interdisciplinary understanding of illness as a source of human need, and clinical medicine as a human response to it.

Increasing concern about clinical negligence demands the provision of more detailed patient information about the complications and risks of treatment and the agreement of patients to any intervention from a simple physical examination to the most complex surgical procedure. This concise practical guide provides doctors and nurses with the appropriate information needed to ensure that the patients have the knowledge to give informed consent. It identifies ways in which accusations of negligence can be minimised and includes explanations of the new NHS consent procedures that have recently being implemented. All healthcare professionals will find this book valuable reading.

In this extraordinary book, Iona Heath draws on her experience as a general practitioner to select and comment on a collection of passages concerning death and dying, and to consider the essential nature of general practice. In Ways of Dying Heath illuminates the process for professionals and lay readers, and stimulates consideration of approaches to improved care at end of life. Her renowned work The Mystery of General Practice (which has been unavailable for some time), considers the complex character of this field, its core values and changing roles. The two extended essays cover important issues on the role of the healthcare professional in the care of the dying, the idea of life and death, and the essential nature of general practice. Matters of Life and Death offers inspiration for all doctors, especially those with an interest in medical humanities. It will also be of great interest to general readers interested in end of life matters, and the nature and art of medicine.

In this extraordinary book, Iona Heath draws on her experience as a general practitioner to select and comment on a collection of passages concerning death and dying, and to consider the essential nature of general practice. In Ways of Dying Heath illuminates the process for professionals and lay readers, and stimulates consideration of approaches to improved care at end of life. Her renowned work The Mystery of General Practice (which has been unavailable for some time), considers the complex character of this field, its core values and changing roles. The two extended essays cover important issues on the role of the healthcare professional in the care of the dying, the idea of life and death, and the essential nature of general practice. Matters of Life and Death offers inspiration for all doctors, especially those with an interest in medical humanities. It will also be of great interest to general readers interested in end of life matters, and the nature and art of medicine.

Increasing concern about clinical negligence demands the provision of more detailed patient information about the complications and risks of treatment and the agreement of patients to any intervention from a simple physical examination to the most complex surgical procedure. This concise practical guide provides doctors and nurses with the appropriate information needed to ensure that the patients have the knowledge to give informed consent. It identifies ways in which accusations of negligence can be minimised and includes explanations of the new NHS consent procedures that have recently being implemented. All healthcare professionals will find this book valuable reading.

The phrase ''medical humanities'' has a currency that is wider than any agreement as to what it means, though those engaged in the field usually know what they are attempting. This volume examines the idea of ''symptom'' as a route to understanding the structure of clinical practice. Actual symptoms are always experienced by real, actual individuals - however much those experiences are mediated by language, culture, expectation and the conventions of the clinical consultation. And this in turn is important because it reminds us that health, illness, well-being, suffering are first and foremost aspects of experience. This book asks questions - and offers answers - about the meaning of actual symptoms and of the concept of ''symptom'' as a prelude to a cumulative interdisciplinary understanding of illness as a source of human need, and clinical medicine as a human response to it.

This collection that was first published in 2009, and is recommended reading for doctors and others includes: The Green Bookshop opens its doors; Books that won prizes; Great books that should have won prizes; Two books by one writer; A handful of classic novels; Short stories and essays; Books and the cinema; Biography and memoirs; Classic books about general practice; Best new books about general practice; Consultation and communication; Education for primary care; Psychiatry, psychology and a bit of philosophy, and Reading for pleasure.

The phrase 'medical humanities' has a currency that is wider than any agreement as to what it means, though those engaged in the field usually know what they are attempting. This volume examines the idea of 'symptom' as a route to understanding the structure of clinical practice. Actual symptoms are always experienced by real, actual individuals - however much those experiences are mediated by language, culture, expectation and the conventions of the clinical consultation. And this in turn is important because it reminds us that health, illness, well-being, suffering are first and foremost aspects of experience. This book asks questions - and offers answers - about the meaning of actual symptoms and of the concept of 'symptom' as a prelude to a cumulative interdisciplinary understanding of illness as a source of human need, and clinical medicine as a human response to it.

The collection includes: *

This third volume in the Companion to Medical Humanities series considers the concept of treatment as an active process which produces an outcome, be it effective, inappropriate or inadequate. It invites the reader to examine the relevance of the patients' belief in any given treatment and their confidence in the practitioner. Against a person-centred backdrop, it investigates boundaries, and reflects on the practical demands on a health care system limited in its resources, where the price of choice for one may be the restriction of service for the other. It also questions the supposed contrasts between treatment and cure, redefining the meaning of care in daily practice. It offers inspirational reading for all academics and professionals with an interest in the medical humanities, as well as researchers in philosophy of medicine and medical ethics. CPD with Radcliffe. This book can be used to achieve CPD (Continuing Professional Development) points through directed reading. We provide a free online form, and downloadable certificate for your appraisal portfolio. For more information and to claim CPD points on this book, visit www.radcliffehealth.com/cpd

David Widgery was a socialist GP who worked in the East End of London. For him medicine was as much about the social causes of illness as it was biological. He believed that if wealth were more evenly distributed, society and its members would be healthier. Working in and fighting for the NHS symbolised his wider view of the world. This book tackles the difficult issues surrounding doctors’ roles, including whether they should ignore or embrace the social causes of illness. It uses the unique perspective of David Widgery’s life to explore these issues, and also considers why medicine at times can be disheartening. General practitioners, other doctors, and those who shape and make health policy will all find this book stimulating and enlightening reading.

This third volume in the Companion to Medical Humanities series considers the concept of treatment as an active process which produces an outcome, be it effective, inappropriate or inadequate. It invites the reader to examine the relevance of the patients'' belief in any given treatment and their confidence in the practitioner. Against a person-cent

¿Por qué son tan pocas las personas que tienen lo que se calificaría como una buena muerte? Y, antes aun: ¿qué es una buena muerte? ¿Qué forma de morir queremos para nosotros y para nuestros seres queridos? "Compruebo -escribe la doctora Iona Heath- que para muchos una buena muerte es aquella en la que el moribundo puede controlar el proceso y morir con dignidad y calma, y todos los que lo rodean se sienten privilegiados, en cierta forma enriquecidos por la situación". Sin embargo, esas muertes son poco comunes. Son muchos más los que son objeto de manoseo y falta de respeto, los que quedan sumidos en el sufrimiento. Morir es difícil. También es difícil ser médico: presenciar cada día la agonía y tomar conciencia una y otra vez de los límites de la ciencia. Cuando el paciente terminal conoce a su médico, ambos inician una de las tareas más complejas que deberán afrontar. ¿Cómo dialogar con quien está por dejarnos? ¿Cómo acompañarlo sin reducirlo a objeto de un inútil ensañamiento terapéutico? ¿Cómo hacer más suave y digna la transición? A estas preguntas clave responde la autora de un libro tan inteligente como bello. Sus respuestas combinan la experiencia, la empatía y una gran pasión por la literatura. ''Ayudar a morir'' es la descripción de un viaje en cuyo trayecto la palabra de poetas, escritores y pensadores echa luz sobre circunstancias de las vidas y las muertes de hombres y mujeres que siempre, de algún modo, son extraordinarias.