One of the things we all figure out pretty early on in our end of life care journey is that there is always more to know! At IDLM we make continuing education a priority for exactly that reason, to help our students and graduates add to their knowledge and keep track of new developments in medical and end of life care. But you don’t have to wait around for us. This week, we would like to share a few excellent books you can pick up and enjoy on your own time, as a doula or simply someone who wants to know more about death and dying.
Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully, Julie McFadden, RN (Tarcher Perigree, 2024) – Julie McFadden built a huge social media following as @HospiceNurseJulie on Instagram and TikTok, using her platform to answer all the questions her followers ever wanted to ask about death and dying but were afraid to ask. Her book is effectively a compilation of all this knowledge. Written in a friendly, easy-to-read style, it serves as a digestible 101 guide for what to expect from the modern hospice experience and the end of life process. Particularly useful for readers who have never been near a dying person before, this book is an excellent resource for those who are currently studying to be death doulas, or the families of patients with a terminal diagnosis.
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End, Alua Arthur, Death Doula (Mariner Books, 2024) – Alua Arthur is a strong voice in the death positive community. Her work has raised awareness for hospice care and death doulas, helping the public to learn more about the value of both and the care and quality of life they can provide during the last phase of a person’s life. Her book is mainly memoir, focusing on her personal journey to this unusual profession after failing to find joy pursuing a more traditional life path. Reminiscent of Eat, Pray, Love but with thoughts about death and dying to add a different kind of depth, this book will inspire those considering getting into death care as well as their potential clients, and is an engaging read for anyone whether they fit into those categories or not.
Death, Interrupted: How Modern Medicine Is Complicating the Way We Die, Blair Bigham MD (The Walrus Books, 2022) – In this book, which is part memoir, part medical history, Dr Blair Bigham examines the general medical attitude of “life at any cost” when it comes to patients. He explores the development of medical technology over the course of the twentieth century and the incredible ways that doctors figured out how to treat and even cure medical problems that previously seemed unsolvable—and then, approaching it with the expertise of a practicing doctor, he examines whether these solutions truly do provide the most beneficial outcomes for patients, families, and society at large. A thoughtful look at modern attitudes about dying and living, made even more compelling thanks to the author’s professional insights as a medical practitioner.
We’ll leave it here because this is about all we have room for in one blog post, but hopefully this will be a good starting point.Each of these books was published just within the past couple of years; the information is up to date (in cases where that makes a difference), coming from professionals who are still active in the death care profession and really know what they’re talking about.
