To Be, Or Not to Be

One part of Being that can’t be denied is that one day, we will no longer Be. Michael Hebb realized that most Americans simply don’t think about how they want to die and created the non-profit organization Death Over Dinner to get us talking about it. Death Over Dinner is dedicated to helping normalize talking about death and dying by hosting gatherings to have facilitated discussions in a safe space: at the dinner table. Participants in these empowering dinners discuss their wishes, their worries, and consider the fact that while most Americans want to die at home, 75% die in hospitals. Paradoxically, all this talk about death results in a sense of renewed vitality for gatherers. Hear Hebb’s inspiration and reasoning for yourself in this short video.

Death is not only an inevitable part of our individual lives, it’s an inevitable part of our journeys as health care professionals. How do we encourage those on our teams and in our patient rooms to have the important and difficult conversations around death and dying? How might we assist in honoring a patient or family’s wishes and serve as advocates in those precious life Moments?