And it's not only physical pain that needs addressing. Emery teaches about loss and grief to students in the Medical Humanities Program at the College of Medicine and Public Health. He emphasizes to students that when the physical pain is dealt with first, the patient is better able to face other issues. You can't do anything for them until you get the crying under control. Well, that's how it is with pain.
Physical pain overrides everything else.
Once that's taken care of, you can start to help the patient work on other types of pain. Emery tries to convey to his students how critically important hospice care and palliative medicine are to dying patients and their families. And it's not that hard to give once you get over your own anxieties. It is a personal and complex dynamic in our lives that is highly individualized. You have to get beyond that and on the path that allows you to get close to the patient and the family.