Gitanjli (Tanya) Arora, MD
Attending Physician, Palliative Care at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
1 / 9
I really like working with parents. It is a partnership. There is something magical that happens when everybody is thinking about another human being together.
A doctor’s journey to palliative care: I wanted to be the one to kneel down to talk to the child, their siblings
Distrust: We have given parents a lot of reasons to think there is not a partnership there. We don’t communicate as we should: we don’t ask for permission; we aren’t transparent with information.
A physician on learning how to understand and consider when the family is ‘hoping for a miracle.'
A Physician on Cultural Humility: “How do we listen, first?”
Getting the information that matters from the family: Asking the right questions
When language is the barrier to getting the information that matters from the family: It is the doctor that needs the interpreter, to understand the family and communicate with them fully.
Advocating for their child can be tricky for the parents: The burden should be on us clinicians to be better listeners.