Bronnie Ware's Patients

This author’s personal perceptions concerning patients facing a lingering terminal illness, have been shaped by over 20 years of critical care nursing experience. Facing death and illness on a daily basis requires self-examination and a high degree of comfort with one’s own mortality, limits and values. Constant exposure to the fragility of life forces respect for the whole person and the people who love them. A general approach to patients who are actively dying is to allow them to define what they want and need during this time. The nurse’s role

On reading this article and identifying the study, there was a clear insight on how death and dying, and even improved health, impacted those nurses (Conte, 2014). Nurses, who worked closely with their patients, through the perils and suffering, culminating of death and losses, had grief not readily explored to enable that comfort zone (Conte, 2014).

When I think about the past there are a lot of things that I wish I had done. Whether it be, standing up for myself, defending myself, gone zip lining, taken back some of the things I said or tried harder. It is important to not think about regrets too much because in fifty years any of the mistakes you've made aren't going to matter. Even if you think that it is the biggest mistake ever, nobody will remember it in fifty years. It is still important to make mistakes and have regrets because in the long run you’ll have nothing to look back and laugh about, or give valuable lessons to other people

Often times we find ourselves thinking about the past only to try to force the memories away and return to our current delusion. We can never erase the past, but if the past is who we are, then should we just welcome pain back into our lives? Embarrassment, guilt, and pride betray us as we choose to bury our darkest memories in our head and look to a positive future without ever having to readdress them and acknowledge that they had ever happened in the first place. Thinking back now my weakest moment caught me by complete surprise.

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

Getting prepared for death can be an exhausting experience for the patient and their family. It is very important that the patient not only knows what they want as far as their right to receive or reject treatment and medications or knowing whether they want to receive palliative care at home or in a hospital setting to include the advantages and disadvantages of each. The main focus of this paper is to give the reader an in depth look on how an end of life crisis affects a patient and their family. Ella is a breast cancer patient who just came out of remission and is at the end of her life.

Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the individual as a whole but also an understanding of the

Problems are hard to solve sometimes, some problems may go on forever and we might keep thinking to ourselves that we solved it but really we're taking a five minute break. If only people knew how hard it was. Most every day people see life as an never ending stressful day until you have no more days and realized how much you had to begin with. But then you have the people that are clinged to the past and don't move on. That's really most of our problem the good ole days we say how good they were at the same time admiring those days so much that we miss out on what good we've been given today.

When it comes to the experience of grief that goes along with a terminal diagnosis or death the focus of care, therapy, and concern is often placed solely on the patient and his or her family and friends, and rightly so (Woolhouse, Brown & Thind, 2012). However, the health care professionals that help to care for these patients and their loved ones are often left in the shadows to cope with the grief that they may be feeling, alone (Woolhouse, Brown & Thind, 2012). Often, their grief is deemed unacceptable by their colleagues and society, and they are certainly not provided with the same level of care as someone who is experiencing real grief, first-hand (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). This paper discusses the differences that health

This is recognized to be an issue, and throughout the article the authors provided an understanding of how palliative care and end-of-life care are provided too late for a patient and should be provided at an earlier time in order to bring more comfort to the patients. The authors suggest that when and how end-of-life care is provided should be altered, with nursing ethics in mind, so that patients and nurses may feel better about the care they receive. This source will help my research by providing information on how changing the policies of end-of-life care and palliative care can result in the patient feeling a relief from their suffering and ultimately feeling more comfortable. This will also help my argument in how altering the current policies and focusing on providing better end-of-life care can lead to the diminishment of physician-assisted

Dr. Ira Byock’s latest book, The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to transform Care Through the End of Life, is a remarkable book written from a personal perspective as one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country. Dr. Byock shares stories of his experience with patients in his clinical experience to illustrate how end-of-life care affects each person. He explains what palliative care really is and how to make humane choices in a world obsessed with conquering death. Byock presents an agenda for end-of-life care that stresses compassion, dignity, and each patient being viewed as a unique case with the opportunity to partake in shared decisions amongst a team of professionals and family members. Dr. Byock is an advocate of dying well in a society marked by a fear of death; his highly personal account provides thought-provoking vignettes of how people struggle to make the right decisions in the winter of their lives. Byock urges society to embrace the reality of death and transform the medical community into an environment that will allow patients to live the last of their days in comfort with dignity and peace. This book is a vitally important piece of literature for everyone to devour with fervor. Everyone needs to understand the inevitability of death and the environment end-of-life care can present in what will be the final moments of life.

Brady, E. (1999). Stories at the hour of our death. Home Healthcare Nurse, 17 (3) (1999), pp. 176–180

Human beings make mistakes; sometimes they learn from their first mistake, sometimes they learn after

Nurses are the hospice team members who spend a lot of time with dying patients and their families. “The World Health Organization has characterized the need for expert, palliative and end-of-life care as a top priority for global health care. The specialty of hospice and palliative care nursing embraced a humanistic caring and holistic approach to patient care.” (Wu, Vilker, 2011).

3. Palliative Care Council of South Australia. (1996). Good palliative care project: final report. Retrieved September 4, 2002, from Palliative Care Council of So