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Conversing with Cancer

How to Ask Questions, Find and Share Information, and Make the Best Decisions

by Lisa Sparks (Author) Anna Leahy (Author)
©2018 Textbook 268 Pages
Series: Language as Social Action, Volume 22

Summary

With more than 40% of people eventually facing a cancer diagnosis, Conversing with Cancer is a much-needed addition to understanding and improving cancer care through strong communication among providers, patients, and caregivers. Each person whose life is affected by a cancer diagnosis—patient, healthcare provider, caregiver—has information and needs information in order to make the best decisions possible under the circumstances. After studying and writing about the topics of communication and cancer for many years separately, authors Lisa Sparks and Anna Leahy combine their expertise in this new tour de force. Here, they apply principles from the field of health communication to the cancer care experience, drawing from a wide range of scholarship to offer a comprehensive view of cancer care communication and extend existing work into new insights. Engaging chapters cover all phases of the journey through cancer, from prevention to recovery or end-of-life; analyze the roles of the variety of cultural and social identities and relationships; and explore written, verbal, non-verbal, and electronic communication. In addition, this book draws from the real-life stories of cancer patients themselves to enrich the book’s unique discussions and to better understand how theory can be put into practice. Conversing with Cancer is ideal for use in health communication classes, medical and nursing programs, and formal caregiver training. In addition, it is useful for cancer patient and caregiver supports groups and for individual providers, patients, and caregivers.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the authors
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Chapter 1. Introduction to Conversing with Cancer
  • Chapter 2. Talk, Talk: Understanding Health Communication, Health Literacy, and Cancer
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 3. The Big C: Culture and Cancer Care
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 4. Who’s Who: Social Identity and Cancer Care
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 5. Citizens of Cancer Land: Cancer Communication Across a Lifetime
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 6. Navigating the Landscape: Communication in Cancer Care Organizations
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 7. What’s Up, Doc?: Patients and Healthcare Providers in Conversation
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 8. Giving Care, Taking Care: Caregivers and Communication
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 9. Warrior or Citizen?: Metaphors and Messages in Cancer Care
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 10. Can You Hear Me Now?: Technology and Communication in Cancer Care
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 11. Extending the Conversation: A New Theoretical Model for Cancer Communication
  • Exercise & Discussion
  • Chapter 12. Epilogue: Mottos Moving Forward
  • Appendix A: Glossary
  • Appendix B: Suggested Online Resources for Expanded Discussion
  • Index
  • Series index

Lisa Sparks and Anna Leahy

Conversing with Cancer

How to Ask Questions,
Find and Share Information,
and Make the Best Decisions

About the authors

Lisa Sparks (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) is Dean of the School of Communication at Chapman University, Orange, California. Dr. Sparks is a highly regarded teacher-scholar whose published work spans more than 150 research articles and scholarly book chapters and is the author and editor of more than ten books in the areas of communication, health, and aging with a distinct focus on intersections of provider–patient interaction and family decision-making as related to cancer communication science. Her innovative research has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and TED.

Anna Leahy (Ph.D., Ohio University; M.F.A., University of Maryland) is the author of Tumor and Aperture and co-author of Generation Space and What We Talk about When We Talk about Creative Writing. She is Director of the M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Chapman University, Orange, California, where she edits the international journal TAB. See more at www.amleahy.com and follow @AMLeahy.

About the book

With more than 40% of people eventually facing a cancer diagnosis, Conversing with Cancer is a much-needed addition to understanding and improving cancer care through strong communication among providers, patients, and caregivers. Each person whose life is affected by a cancer diagnosis—patient, healthcare provider, caregiver—has information and needs information in order to make the best decisions possible under the circumstances. After studying and writing about the topics of communication and cancer for many years separately, authors Lisa Sparks and Anna Leahy combine their expertise in this new tour de force. Here, they apply principles from the field of health communication to the cancer care experience, drawing from a wide range of scholarship to offer a comprehensive view of cancer care communication and extend existing work into new insights. Engaging chapters cover all phases of the journey through cancer, from prevention to recovery or end-of-life; analyze the roles of the variety of cultural and social identities and relationships; and explore written, verbal, non-verbal, and electronic communication. In addition, this book draws from the real-life stories of cancer patients themselves to enrich the book’s unique discussions and to better understand how theory can be put into practice. Conversing with Cancer is ideal for use in health communication classes, medical and nursing programs, and formal caregiver training. In addition, it is useful for cancer patient and caregiver supports groups and for individual providers, patients, and caregivers.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Acknowledgments

We extend sincere thanks and acknowledgement to Howie Giles, a strong mentor in the field of communication. We also acknowledge the many at Peter Lang for making this book and the Language as Social Action series happen. We are truly grateful for this opportunity to contribute to the ongoing conversation about health communication and cancer care and to make a difference in the lives of patients and their families.

Sincere thanks to Chapman University undergraduate students Shoshanna Feld-Sobol and Brooke Grogan. Also, thanks to graduate students Mike Gravagno, Samantha Mountjoy, Mackenzie Bates, Alysia Hendry, and Devin Valasco for the many ways they helped shape this book, especially the penultimate chapter and the glossary. Also, thanks to Mary Cantrell, Brigid Leahy, Paulette Livers, and Patricia Grace King for their editorial acumen and suggestions as we drafted early chapters. Finally, to those many individuals who have written about their experiences in their own books and blogs and, in some cases, in personal exchanges with us, we are grateful to be able to talk about their stories in Conversing with Cancer.

Each chapter begins with an epigraph drawn from a poem. We thank the authors for their permission (with all rights reserved) to include an excerpt or whole poem, as space and topic allowed:←9 | 10→

“at the doctor’s” by Ivy Alvarez, Mortal. Washington, DC: Red Morning Press, 2006. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Triolet on Beating the Odds” by permission of author Lanette Cadle.

“Exoskeleton” by Risa Denenberg, Mean Distance from the Sun, Aldrich Press, 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Chemo Room” by permission of author Penny Harter.

“Diagnosis” by permission of author Karen Paul Holmes.

“Google Moon (2)” by permission of author Anna Leahy.

“The Habits of Light” by Anna Leahy, Aperture, Shearsman Books, 2017. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“In the ICU” by Lesléa Newman, I Carry My Mother, Headmistress Press, 2015. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Biopsy” by permission of author Stacy Nigliazzo.

“Cancer Diagnosis” by permission of author Marjorie Maddox and translator Rei Berroa; italics from Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2, lines 133–134. The English original appeared in Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare, University of Iowa Press, and Local News from Someplace Else, Wipf and Stock Publishers. The Spanish translation appeared in Luna Luna.

Details

Pages
268
Year
2018
ISBN (PDF)
9781433139000
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433139017
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433139024
ISBN (Softcover)
9781433133534
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433133541
DOI
10.3726/b13076
DOI
10.3726/b13286
Language
English
Publication date
2018 (January)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2018. 268 pp.

Biographical notes

Lisa Sparks (Author) Anna Leahy (Author)

Lisa Sparks is a highly regarded teacher-scholar whose published work spans more than 150 research articles and scholarly book chapters and is the author and editor of more than ten books in the areas of communication, health, and aging with a distinct focus on intersections of provider–patient interaction and family decision-making as related to cancer communication science. Her innovative research has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and TED. Anna Leahy is the author of Tumor and Aperture and co-author of Generation Space and What We Talk about When We Talk about Creative Writing. She earned her PhD from Ohio University and teaches in the MFA and BFA programs at Chapman University, where she edits the international journal TAB. For more information, see www.conversingwithcancer.com.

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270 pages