Is Heartland Hospice Safe Nursing Home Facilities?

For this professional practice, I decided to interview a professional who deals with the subject of death and dying on a regular basis. The interview was conducted at Calvary Hospital which is located at 1740 Eastchester Road in the Bronx. Calvary Hospital was established in 1899 and works in connection with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Calvary Hospital is a non-profit institution and it has a total of 225 beds. This hospital is one of the largest which focuses on end-of-life hospice and palliative care. Other programs include inpatient care, pain management, home care with bereavement and support programs for families and friends, therapeutic recreation, and music therapy. All these

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

Key people could be family, doctors, carers, religious leaders etc. Each may own distinctive role to play in order for the choices and preferences of the individual to be respected and carried out. [ Every person’s end-of-life trajectory is different and needs differ in intensity and quality over time. End-of-life care must adapt to the varying and changing needs of the individual over time and that it cannot be limited to certain settings or services. The provision of good

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.

The beginning of life is celebrated. Books and resources are shared among friends and family in preparation for becoming a new parent. So, what happens as one approaches the end of life? Unfortunately, the same care and sharing rarely occurs in those circumstances and many face the prospect of dying unprepared. Though most people state they would prefer to die at home, this is often not where death occurs. Many Americans spend their last days attached to medical apparatus that keeps the body alive, but it does not allow for communication with family and often requires heavy sedation. Additionally, this level of treatment comes at a high price. As a society, we must become as comfortable in addressing the end of life process as we

Part One: In the documentary "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande talks about the death of patients and how it 's a surprise to a large amount of the patients. He also explains the fear in the medical field, and as a doctor your suppose to help people and cure them, that you 're supposed to give them a better shot and if it later doesn 't go they way you expected,the doctors start to tell themselves what went wrong or what happen everything was going so well. Gawande talks about how he wants to learn more about how to communicate with patients and telling them that they have a certain weeks, days or months left. For example, He talks about one of his patients that he had, her name was Sarah and had stage 4 lung cancer was young and just had a

Great strides have been made to improve end-of-life care through palliative care and hospice programs, but sometimes that’s just not enough. In America, the care that is offered to the elderly and the chronically ill is less than ideal. Statistics show that an

Death is a difficult topic for most people to discuss. Even those in the medical profession, such as doctors and surgeons, have a tough time discussing the prospect of death with patients. In Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Gawande delves into what really matters as life comes to an end, new ways of helping the elderly enjoy their waning days, and the role of doctors and medicine in curing diseases and dealing with patients. Sheri Fink, a reporter for the New York Times, reviewed this book on November 6, 2014 for The New York Times Sunday Book Review in “Atul Gawande’s ‘Being Mortal’”. She thinks Being Mortal is a “valuable contribution to the growing literature on aging, death, and dying”, and does a good job of introducing the topic of

Care designed to give supportive care to people in the final phase of a terminal illness and focus on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure. The goal is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible. Aggressive methods of pain control may be used. Hospice programs generally are home-based, but they sometimes provide services away from home in freestanding facilities, in nursing homes, or within hospitals. The philosophy of hospice is to provide support for the patient's

Maureen Hawthorne explains the importance of communication in her article, The importance of communication in sustaining hope at the end of life. (Hawthorn, 2015) In The Essence of Care, therapeutic communication only occurs if a, “meaningful process within which people convey thoughts, anxieties and emotions” has taken place. (Hawthorn, 2015) In this instance, the presence of communication of a patient and their feelings is vital. The role of the health professional should not be forgotten since, “if health professionals struggle to communicate effectively, patients may be left anguished and in despair.” (Hawthorn, 2015) To understand the method in which proper communication is achieved, an analysis of several ideas is

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.

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who spent two years of her professional career gathering information from terminally ill patients to create the premise for On Death and Dying. “It is not meant to be a textbook on how to manage dying patients, nor is it intended as a complete study of the psychology of dying.” (Kübler-Ross, 1969). This book was written as a call-to-action; to raise awareness of the voice of the dying. Not only is there stigma surrounding the topic, but also numerous misconceptions concerning the emotional journey of the terminally ill. The Kübler-Ross Model creates a framework for those interacting with dying persons, to help caretakers better understand the transitions that are taking place, resulting in higher-quality care. This model is comprised of five stages, which can be experienced in a variety of combinations. Prior to the first stage, the patient must be delivered the news of their illness or the severity of their illness, which usually results in shock. Denial is the first stage noted by Kübler-Ross. Denial and isolation are normal responses to overwhelming emotions and serve as a temporary response until the individual is ready to accept reality. Although this defense mechanism is normative, it is important to note that it isn’t necessarily healthy, and that some never move past this stage. As reality sets in, pain beings to emerge and manifests itself in the next stage: anger. Rationality takes a

One of the few inevitabilities in our life is death. Whether there is more after death is up to interpretation but there is no arguing that at some point, every life must come to an end. Sociological studies and the evolution of hospice care have brought this inevitability to light and provided important dialogue about death and the dying process, particularly as they relate the impact of social and professional relationships an end term patient may have at the time they are dying. A study was conducted was conducted by Dr. Karen Steinhauser that polled end care patients about what was important to them leading up to the time of their death. This poll found that 90% of these patients found it important to say goodbye to important people and 86% of patients found it important to resolve unfinished business with friends and family. From these findings it can be inferred that one of the most important things to people as they near the end of their lives is to find peace and leave this earth with no regrets. This can be summed up by the word closure, which is defined as a feeling that an emotional social or personal relationship or traumatic experience has been resolved. Reaching closure is often closely interrelated with the various personal connections, professional relationships and social status we accrue over our lifetime, and there are a number of avenues for achieving a feeling of closure. This concept is illustrated when we look at how one reaches closure when examining

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their

Keever Solace centers a great place for those in need and who are diagnosed to only live 6 months or less. John F. Keevers was a man who lived near where his solace care is now. Solace centers are wonderful if you don’t have enough money for a loved one to go to nursing homes but can’t stay at home. Furthermore, deerfield is a retirement community and nursing home that is in south asheville. Retirement homes are a place to go when you are around the age where fatalities are more common then when you need the help it’s in the same building all ready. Deerfield has skilled care and other great resources to stay healthy. Moreover, Palliative care is like hospice in many ways except palliative care is appropriate for those no matter what stage of treatment and is in Asheville, NC. Hospice and Palliative are known as care partners because they are very similar in almost all ways except where they are cared for. Additionally, VA Hospice is a community that cares for symptoms and especially for veterans and are every where including in asheville. Hospice and Palliative care care about those who risked everything in order to keep us