Essay about Hospice Programs

Caring Hospice is a company that will provide nursing care to patients that are terminally ill. The ultimate goal is to insure the patient is kept as comfortable as possible while maintaining dignity during the dying process. This company will send registered nurses to the patient’s home for routine physical assessments, medication teaching and administration, education about terminal diseases and the dying process. The nursing staff will also create and maintain appropriate plans of care for the multi-disciplinary team to provide holistic care to the patient.

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

The aim of a hospice is to improve the quality of life of the dying

Medicare covers hospice if you have a terminal illness and aren’t expected to live more than six months. However it doesn’t cover grief counseling.

While hospice care can be provided in the home, in an inpatient respite facility, and in a general inpatient unit, the most frequently encountered mode of care is the acute inpatient setting.

1.1 Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the patient as a whole but also an understanding of the family, social, legal, economic, and institutional circumstances that surround patient care.

Essentially, Hospice and palliative care focus on managing symptoms when a patient is deemed to have 6 months or less to live and allows patients to live out their lives away from a hospital or nursing home setting. Partially the reason why most people, including me, haven’t heard that much about Hospice is most likely because it is intended for people at the very end of their lives. However, another major reason is addressed in Gawande’s book, and it revolves around the idea that doctors don’t inform their patients every time that Hospice is really an option. Gawande admits himself throughout his book that like most doctors, he is always over-optimistic and focus on the treatment of the disease, forgetting to focus on the idea of just managing the symptoms in cases where treatment would only prolong the inevitable or giving too many choices for families to make. Gawande explains “All-out treatment, we tell the incurably ill, is a train you can get off at any time- just say when”, however other options are often never talked about (2014, p. 187). One example from Being Mortal is the story of Sara Monopoli, who faced an incurable form of cancer at a rather young age. Sara, along with her family and husband, never focused on just symptom management, but rather what new and outrageous treatment can be done

In contrast to the costs of standard medical care, hospice care provides an alternative that is both cost effective and caring. Unfortunately, it is actually difficult to quantify the cost savings associated with hospice care due to the fact that comparing costs during the last year of life are impacted by the variability in the length of hospice use. A study at Duke University went to extensive lengths to provide a comparison that provided an effective method for accurate comparisons. The comparison showed a reduced average Medicare expenditure of $2,309 per person from the time hospice care was initiated in comparison to the same situation handled through standard medical methods (Taylor, Ostermann, Houtven, Tulsky, & Steinhauser, 2007). The amount of cost savings varied depending on the primary health condition and the

The first hospice care was established in 1974. A hospice must make physician, nursing, drugs, and medical supply services available 24/7. It must have social workers and counseling services available to the patient and the family. Hospice also provides therapy and homemaker services when needed in order to be qualified under Medicare certification. Hospice is a combination of special services for terminal ill patients. Beside the medical service, hospice care also supports patients and family psychologically and spiritually to put their emotional suffering at ease. The psychological suffering can weight more than physical suffering. Many terminal ill patients cannot accept the bad news and living under emotional distress. Certified chaplains can work with people from different religions, they focus on the world-view of the patient and family. Using patient personal goal as the measurement, chaplains are the

Hospice care is a model of care that focuses on relieving symptoms and supporting patients with a life expectancy of six months or less (Altshuler, 2013). For most nurses, caring for a dying elder (individual aged 65 years and above) is a discrete, time-limited experience that begins with first contact, often in a hospital, emergency room, or long term care facility, and ends with the death itself (Phillips & Reed, 2008).

Nurses are a respected part of our community. They’re trained and educated to help heal, teach, and offer supportive care. Nurses can specialize in different areas, one would be the hospice field. Hospice patients typically have six months or less to live. Hospice will normally be provided in the patient’s home; however, the patient may also receive hospice care in the hospital, nursing care facility, or a family member’s home (“Home Health Care And Hospice Nursing”). According to Lauren Douglas, RN, while providing care in the home, the nurse must come prepared, and be expected to professionally and efficiently give outstanding care (Douglas). Hospice nurses often provide, teach, and monitor wound care, provide blood draws, as well as administer, and organize medications. Some hospice nurses will provide chemo-therapy and

Hospice care generally lasts six months. However, there are patients who are discharged from hospice services. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

As everyone gets old, hospice care is needed. End-of-life care is the industry to be in, but are we taking advantage of these people? Research shows that Medicare is the main company that pays for hospice at 83.9% with Medicaid at 4.9% (Fay).

Hospice is a program of care and support for patients who are terminally ill. There are 7 important facts about this program:

Hospice is a component of palliative care. A person does not necessarily have to be dying in order to see a palliative care specialist. This is where the service is often underutilized in the hospital. In the 18 months I have been a nurse, I have cared for many patients with chronic illnesses who have dealt with symptoms that have severely impacted their quality of life. Most of the time, it seems as though the patient’s care providers are interested in treating the patient’s acute problems. My experience has been that the symptoms are often overlooked or are being treated in a manner that is to the dissatisfaction and discomfort of the patient.