Brains, courage and integrity

Courage, brains and heart: lessons from the Wizard of Oz for difficult healthcare conversations.

Difficult conversations abound in healthcare; they simply go ith the territory. Quintessential challenging conversations often elate to conveying serious, unexpected news to patients and heir families. On any given day, critical care practitioners can nd themselves engaged in conversations ranging from sharing ragic news to parents of previously healthy children, explaining omplex diagnoses and...

Courage Unmasked

Lying supine, the technician uses my mask to bolt me to the treatment table. After he leaves the room, I feel alone, and at first, afraid. I see and hear the radiation machine move around me, but feel nothing. Minutes later, the door opens, and the mask is unbolted. This process is repeated almost daily for 2 months... After 2 weeks, the skin on my neck and inside my mouth becomes red, sore, an...

Courage and Moral Anger

On at least one prominent and traditional view, courage involves actions undertaken to accomplish an important objective in the face of danger to the person performing the action. The danger may be to one’s physical or psychological well being, or to one’s reputation, professional standing, or personal relationships. Such actions are, moreover, usually distinguished from rash, foolish, or reckl...

Courage and Vision

arrangements for physical illness. Patients are to be admitted without formality?so that even voluntary status is an unnecessary concept: safeguards and standards of individual care are to be those that any doctor or hospital authority would naturally employ. The needs of the patient are more important in determining the type of hospital he goes to than scientific classifications. All this mean...

Epistemic Courage and Epistemic Virtue