End of life can be completely difficult to cope with, but is a part of everyday life. End of life pertains to the last days of a patient’s life, which means that end of life requires many important decisions such as medical treatment and knowing when to terminate life support. So planning end of life can be extremely difficult for the patient and their family members. They will have to make the decision on where the patient would like to spend their last days, treatments they wish to have and not to mention their goals of care. This topic is truly important because not many individuals realize what comes with dealing with end of life care. When it comes to medical treatments for the patient, they must decide …show more content…
Based on that decision the family can determine how the patient will be cared for at home i.e. a hospice caregiver as the patient will be unable to care for themselves or family coming together to care for their loved ones. Whatever the family and the patient chooses will come with a lot of hard work and dedication. The patient will need help with bathing, feeding, toileting, dressing and also turning and repositioning. First, if the patient chooses to enter into a hospice facility, it means that their life expectancy is six months or less. In order for the patient to live a quality life in the last days, they must be pain and symptom free. This is the service that is provided by the hospice facility (palliative care), their goal is ensuring that the patient is comfortable. With this service available the family can focus all of their attention on their loved ones. Not to mention, they can enjoy their last moments with them. Secondly, if the patient decides to return home there will have to be a caregiver present and they are usually supervised by the doctor and the hospice staff. This environment allows for the patient to again be surrounded by loved ones. It also allows for them to have the peace of knowing that they are in a familiar place. Also this allows
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.
Secondly, the patient should be capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him or herself. Thirdly, the patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months. Interested patients must also provide the request for termination in writing to the physician. In addition, physicians are expected to inform patients to alternative means of care including hospice care and other medications. Only after precautions evaluation, the laws then permit patients to make the ultimate life ending decision.
Hospice exists in the hope and belief that, through proper care and the encouragement of a caring and sensitive team, patients and their families may be free to achieve some level of mental and spiritual preparation for death that is comfortable to them. The goal is to help
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
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 process of deciding when a terminally ill patient should die lies within the patient, family members, and the
The importance of end of life issues and decisions are now being discussed at the time of admission to most acute care and long term acute care facilities. More attention is being placed on these specific decisions to ensure that the patient's
Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and
Rather, the hospice staff and the patient understand the patient is going to die and no further treatment options are available. Therefore, hospice care centers direct their attention towards providing a dignified ending to a patient’s life by delivering comfort and emotional support through a palliative care approach designated to alleviate pain and emotional distress. For example, at Hospice of Dayton, each patient residing at the care facility is provided their own room where their family is able to stay with them and the patient is able to receive the pain management and emotional support they need to die a little closer to peace and security. Additionally, at Hospice of Dayton, there are full-time doctors, nurses, counselors, and religious support-staff that provide patients the physical treatment they need to minimize their pain, as well as the emotional support they need to live the last moments of their life with dignity and emotional well-being. Most importantly, Hospice of Dayton because of its volunteers. Volunteers provide the invaluable service of listening, crying, and laughing with those who may not necessarily have someone to spend time with, while they undergo their long, arduous, and painful experience 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
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 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,
At Central Coast VNA and Hospice, we provide King City, CA residents with the ability to return home from the hospital earlier. In addition to letting patients live at home longer, our home health care options can prevent return hospitalizations. With home health care services, patients have access to our trained staff members, therapists and nurses. We provide ongoing support for loved ones and care with dignity. Our home health care services include dietary counseling, a cardiac program, skilled nursing services, wound care, a certified diabetic educator, rehabilitation services, palliative care and medical social
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
Patient will need treatment for the rest of their life. During times of crisis they may