Hospice Care

When a person is diagnosed with a terminally illness and is given an expectancy of six months or less to live, it is time to concentrate on the type of care will need. Many times a person and their family will turn to hospice care. The meaning of hospice is to provide care to a person who is terminally ill. Hospice does not speed up or postpone death. Hospice is a type of care that provides services to improve the quality of life for the patient and family.

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

A survey was conducted in 2000 on more than 9,000 patients discharged from more than 2,000 hospices on the services they received (Carlson, 2007). It revealed that 22% of them received five major palliative care services, which varied among the hospices. These palliative care services were nursing care, physician care, medication management, psychological care, and caregiver support. Approximately 14% of the hospices provided all five services and 33% provided only one or two services. Only 59% of these patients received medication management services. These included administering medication, dispensing correct dosages, and setting and following dosage schedule.

Hospice is a philosophy of care. It treats the person rather than the disease and focuses on quality of life. It surrounds the patient and family with a team consisting of professionals who not only address physical distress, but emotional and spiritual issues as well. Hospice care is patient-centered because the needs of the patient and family drive the activities of the hospice team.

According to Allen et al. (2012), “millions of people with chronic illnesses endure unrelieved pain, uncontrolled physical symptoms and unresolved psychosocial or spiritual problems.” This issue occurs because palliative care is often considered a form of end-of-life care. Palliative care is a treatment that can be used for patients who suffer from chronic illnesses and diseases while receiving curative treatment. (Horowitz, Grambling & Quill, 2014) purposely states the misconceptions of palliative care and advocated for seriously ill patients that education must bring under control the misconceptions. Some patients do not receive appropriate symptom management because the palliative care treatment needed is often confused with end-of-life care. However, end-of-life care attempts to relieve pain and suffering when a disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment. Pain and suffering could ultimately be controlled or even eliminated through the proper utilization of palliative care. Patients who are not referred to palliative care in a timely manner is more likely to have poor quality of life, uncontrolled symptom management and increased amounts of visits to the emergency room during the disease process. Patients with life limiting illnesses bear the burden of increased discomfort and increased suffering. Nurses experience clinical practice issues and difficulties in the clinical setting during the delivery of comfort and symptom management. These issues

Hospice goals “are to promote patient-family autonomy, to assist patients in obtaining pain control and real quality of life before they die, and to enable families of patients to receive supportive help during the dying process” (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). Hospice care can be delivered in any setting, mostly with the majority of patients receiving care either in their primary place of residence or in a hospice inpatient facility (Leming & Dickinson,

The purpose of hospice is to effectively provide palliative care to terminally ill patients and their families, it is available to any age, religion or race. According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, “hospice provides expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes Support is provided to the patient’s loved ones as well” (NHPCO, 2015). In

Hospice is compassionate care provided to patients facing terminal illness or illness for which there is no cure. These patients are diagnosed with an illness from which they will never recover and usually have a life prognosis of six months or less (Hospice Foundation of America, 2014). The goal of hospice care is improving quality of life and managing the symptoms of disease and the dying process. The care hospice offers is focused on pain management and emotional and spiritual support for both the patient and family (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 2012). Hospice care can be provided in many different settings, often the patient’s own home. Hospice care can also be provided in hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities and free-standing hospice centers and is available to patients of all ages (NHPCO, 2012). A patient receiving care in a hospice program has a team of healthcare individuals that can consist of the patients own physician, nurses, home health aides, clergy, social workers, and speech and physical therapists (NHPCO, 2012). Usually, a care plan is developed by the hospice team and care of the patient is provided by family members with the support of the hospice staff (NHPCO, 2012). Nurses make regular visits to the patient and family and are on call 24/7. Once enrolled in a hospice program hospice covers everything that will be needed to care for you, from medications to manage pain to

The doctors were pretty sure that Pierre had less than 6 months to live, so he fell well within the guidelines for hospice coverage. Should hospice coverage be limited to those with 6 months or less to live, or should other be covered? 6 months is a random figure and I think that the covering other could help families deal with hospice care a little better; it would give them a better understanding of what hospice-type services is entailed. It also could be too expensive for covering others and how can you know for sure if 6 months is suitable.

In nursing, the goal of care is usually to restore the patient back to the highest level of health possible. In some cases, however, the goals of care change when a curative approach is no longer appropriate. The new goals of care could simply be palliation and pain control rather than a restoration back to full health. This type of care is called palliative care. Palliative care is not the same as end-of-life care, but the two go hand-in-hand at times. The goal of end-of-life care is a “good” death, good being defined by the patient. Palliation is part of that “good” death. Both palliative care and end-of-life

Have you ever gone to the Doctors before? The person who weighed you and took your temperature before you got to see the doctor was a nurse. A Nurse is – (verb) 1 to take care of (as a young child or a sick person) 2 to treat with special care ("Webster's dictionary & thesauras for students”). One thing I knew before I started researching is there are many different kinds of nursing. In this paper I will be exploring two different branches of nursing Hospice and Home Health Care.

Hospice patients vary in age, race, and socioeconomic demographic. Hospice agency care for neonate, pediatric, adult and generic patients, in 2014 0.5% of patients were less than 24 years of age, 32.4.% of patients were 25-74 years of age , and 67.1% of patients were over 75 years of age (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 2015). Most importantly when looking at hospice patients by race/ethnicity, we are able to see the need for cultural diversity and sensitivity, in 2014 76% of hospice patients were Caucasian, 7.6% were African-American, and 7.1% were Hispanic or Latino. This indicates a decrease in diversity compared to the findings of 2013.

 LA Hospice is a non-for-profit facility located in Los Angeles.  “Hospice care encompasses a philosophy of care for individuals of any age with life-limiting illnesses for whom further curative measures are no longer desired or appropriate (The Role of Occupational Therapy in End-of-Life-Care.)” Hospice referrals require that the client have a life expectancy of 6 months or less with the usual course of the diagnosis Hospice care also helps family members manage the practical details and emotional challenges of caring for a dying loved one (Hospice Care-Topic Overview).” LA Hospice is a non-for-profit and has 25 beds to meet the patient’s needs. Justin Little is the CEO of LA Hospice

This section examines the literature relevant to the efficacy of supervision in hospice professional as it relates to job burnout among them. This question is an important one because hospice professionals cope with loss on their job frequently. An unique challenge that is faced by hospice professionals is that every patient they care for will die and this leaves the grieving family to be supported. The care that hospice professionals provide requires them to become an intimate part of the patients live. The need for effective supervisions is highly needed in hospice professionals and is crucial in aiding them to serve patients and families in challenging times. This section will highlight research that documents severity

There is a time to be born, and a time to die. As frightening as it is, we will all die someday. Some will die at birth, some in a tragic accident, and others from a natural cause. The average person will live a full life, and die in old age. Cancers and other deadly diseases are becoming more prominent in our culture, the demand for end of life care is becoming substantial. Hospice nurses provide near death care, and attend to the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the terminally ill patient. Hospice nursing would not be the perfect job for all nurses, it takes a nurse with a special heart, and calling to specialize in the hospice field.