The ambitious seminar series, ‘Images of Care and Dying’, led by Robbie Duschinsky, Stephen Barclay and Emma Wilson (Professor of French Literature and the Visual Arts) began in October 2016 with a discussion of a remarkable documentary at the first seminar. Filmed in a pioneering hospice, The Time to Die addressed a subject that remains taboo for many. Health professionals, medical students and members of the public joined the conversation, as well as those interested in film and ethics. Footage from the seminar is available here.

Junior doctors can expect to deal with as many as 40 to 50 deaths a year in the course of their work. Yet most people, in a society that protects itself from the reality of human frailty and mortality, have never witnessed death close up. Several Cambridge medical students attended the event. One student, Chris Kassam, said: “Working with patients at the end of life can leave you feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the experience, and the easy option is to withdraw behind a mask of professionalism. I think the film and discussion helped me to realise that what patients and their families may need most at such times is not a doctor but another human being to simply be there with them.”

The second seminar in the series took place on 9 November and featured Professor Bee Wee, National Clinical Director for End of Life Care, NHS England, and Dr Anna Elsner, University of Zurich. To watch the film of the seminar click here.

To register for one of the upcoming seminars in the series, please visit http://www.iph.cam.ac.uk/public-health-policy/policy-themes/endoflifecare/imagesofcare/.

From a University of Cambridge feature published on 1 November 2016 by Alex Buxton

More information

See the full feature: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/questions-of-life-and-death

Book for the forthcoming seminars: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/images-of-care