Offering practical suggestions for humane caregiving, this valuable new book is aimed at all providers of medical care. This compassionate volume focuses on the development of the thanatology curriculum--teaching caregivers who are just beginning their professional lives to be adequately prepared to deal appropriately with dying patients and their families and to cope with the personal toll exacted by this aspect of medical practice. At a time when increasingly complex medical technology promotes more impersonal contact between caregivers and patients, the contributors emphasize the importance of providing compassionate, responsive, and humane care to those whose lives are ending.