Hospice Report

"The Hospice Philosophy by Joyce Remy." Seniors Digest RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.poststat.net/pwp008/pub.49/issue.333/article.464>.

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

Each day as a Hospice Nurse I touch lives. I cannot imagine a job more suitable for me. Each work day I make a difference in someone’s life. No one can die for us, but we don’t have to die alone; and, that is why I became a hospice nurse. Every day is different, presents new challenges, and always touches my heart. It’s beautiful when talent, and passion come together to make a difference.

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

    At some point in a terminally ill person 's life, there comes a time when all treatment options have been exhausted, and patient comfort is the number one priority. During this process, hospice care comes into play to ensure quality of life of a patient. Pain management and supportive services are provided to anyone who is willing by Medicare, and other government assistance programs, for individuals and families that cannot afford private home care. These services are provided by a trained group of professionals, including; Doctors, Nurses, Counselors, Social workers, Physical therapists, Volunteers and Chaplains. There are different types of hospice

Hospice is a special healthcare option for patients and families faced with a terminal illness. At Hospice there’s a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses social workers, bereavement counselors and volunteers that work together to address the physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs of each patient and

United Hospice of Rockland is placed in a unique position when it comes to their ability to tell the stories that have the potential for the largest impact. Due to the Health Insurance

Physician aid-in-dying (PAD) also known as Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is a widely debated ethical issue that surrounds the American court system (Starks, Dudzinski & White, 2013, p.1). PAD “refers to [the] practice in which a physician provides a competent, terminally ill patient with a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient's request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life” (Starks et al., 2013, p.1). Physician aid-in-dying is legal only in three of fifty states: Oregon, Washington and Vermont. It is permissible under “strict patient eligibility criteria” and mental and emotional competence (Starks, et al., 2013, p.1).

Gilda also witnessed her mother struggle with cancer, and watched the Hospice nurses and staff provide care and support to Gilda’s mother and family, and ultimately decided that she too wanted to assist people cope with grief and loss and the end of process. On the other hand, both Michele and Pamela started their careers in the medical field outside of Hospice and found their way to the Hospice program with time and experience. Pamela believed that there was a need for LPN is within the Hospice agency, and started her work as an LPN working with Hospice patients in their homes. Michele started as a nurse when she started working for Hospice and after a few years, she was promoted to a care provider liaison, working with and advocating on behalf of Hospice patients who reside in assisted living facilities.

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

Hospice of the North Coast’s mission is “To provide compassionate, personalized care to patients and families during the end-of-life transition.”

    As of late, we’ve become familiarized with the concept of hospice through guest speakers and readings (Class notes, 2016). Through Descendants we learned the importance of advanced care directives and widened our EOL conversation to focus more on family than the patient (Payne). Through another guest speaker and lecture we also talked about expressive therapy and its imperativeness on patient and family care (Class notes, 2016). During our week not in class, we read articles on grief, coping, and social support and it’s importance to communication at the end-of-life, additionally, we saw the five stages of grief after watching the Scrubs episode (Class notes, 2016). Lastly, we closed with potpourri week in which we learned about the different religions/cultures and their views on the afterlife (Class notes, 2016).

The mission of Brookdale Hospice is to support the patient and their families, both physically and emotionally, during and after the last stage of a loved one’s life. There are four main goals of hospice care here at Brookdale. The first one is to provide comfort for the patients; their focus is on care, not cure. Their goal is also to provide holistic care; they are treating the whole person, not just the patient’s disease. The next goal is to relieve suffering, whether that is physical, emotional or spiritual. The last goal of hospice care at Brookdale is to promote dignity of the patient. It is important that they are taken care, because they have worth just like everyone else.

Even though hospice care is specifically tailed to every patient and has an individualized nature, many providers admit it’s hard to use standardized quality measures for performance and comparison (Mckinney, 2012). However, that’s precisely what the CMS requires hospice programs to do. Robin Dowell, a nurse consultant in the office of Clinical Standards and Quality, says “Yes, hospice is customized to individual patients and families, but how well they provide care can be standardized”. “There are expectations of quality that we can identify” (Mckinney, 2012).