Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine
Open Access

Case Report

Sarahs Journey through the End of Life: A Literary and Pictorial Analysis

Anat Romem¹, Jorunn Opstad Carmel¹ and Chaya Greenberger^2*

¹Shaare Zedek Medical Center, The Palliative Care Unit and Lev Academic Center, Campus Tal, School of life and Health Sciences, Jerusalem, Israel

²Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel

*Corresponding Author:

Chaya Greenberger, PhD
Dean, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Jerusalem College of Technology
Mitzpe Nevo 92/2, Maale Adumim, Israel
Tel: 72528119420
E-mail: greenber@jct.ac.il

Received date: May 19, 2016; Accepted date: June 20, 2016; Published date: June 24, 2016

Citation: Romem A, Carmel JO, Greenberger C (2016) Sarah’s Journey through the End of Life: A Literary and Pictorial Analysis. J Palliat Care Med 6:272. doi:10.4172/2165-7386.1000272

Copyright: © 2016 Romem A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Coming to grips with End of Life (EOL) is a stressful and emotionally draining experience. Coping with the circumstances is extremely challenging both for patient and caregiver. The ability to express one’s thoughts and feelings is paramount to a successful and meaningful closure. Often, unfortunately, this goal eludes both the individual and his or her caregivers. Alternatives to verbal modes of communication, such as diarizing, need to therefore be explored.

The purpose of this report is to present an abridged version of excerpts from a diary written by one of our patients, with an accompanying pictorial interpretation of these excerpts chosen from the paintings of Edvard Munch. Munch is an early 20th century Norwegian painter, some of whose major themes relate to disease, emotional turmoil, death, and separation. They reflect a life overwhelmed by recurrent family tragedy and the artist’s attempt to relieve his profound sadness and grief through an artistic medium. With the family’s permission, our palliative care team uses this diary and parallel expressions from selected paintings by Munch in its staff training seminars. Group reflection on the writings and paintings has proved to be a successful avenue for enabling our staff to better understand the journey through end of life and to empower the facilitation of patients’ therapeutic description of their unique journeys. It is our hope that the report will inspire additional professionals to utilize similar techniques for staff development in their care units.

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