Hospice Utilization

Hospice bereavement programs focus on different aspects for family members. One is in helping family members to understand and move forward in the grief process. In order to do this, they must express their inner thoughts and feelings, but also, one must help them in identifying or developing and utilizing healthy coping strategies. This leads families into using this program to help them solve the problem and adjust towards the loss of their loved one. Also, it is essential to give guidance and assist these family members in decisions relative to the loss. Another factor that should be addressed is cultural and spiritual concerns because it is an important value in most people’s lives. In understanding the family member’s spiritual and cultural

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

Palliative care is a relatively new concept, stemming from the hospice movement of the 1960s. This type of care focuses on the quality of life of its patients at any time in their treatment process. Palliative care is a concept that is often used synonymously with hospice care. Although it can be congregated with hospice care, they are not the same thing. Thus, it can easily be misunderstood. Sherner (2015) explains that both clinicians and people alternate palliative care and hospice. Unfortunately, she says, these people believe that palliative care implies the patient is refusing curative care. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the concept, clarify the meaning, and differentiate the concept of palliative care.

I do home health CNA jobs and trying to get in to be a CNA in a hospice home health and later on, I would like to be a visiting nurse to a hospice patients. I conducted an interview to one hospice psychologist I know and the information I’ve learned is intense and I’ve realized that I wanted to know more about this field. So what is hospice? Hospice is a program of care for terminally ill patients and their love ones; it’s a program about life and about living life to the fullest until the end. One professional that can help what’s they are going through is psychologist. They assessed what the patient and family needs and help them to understand and evaluate the options that meet their needs. Many psychologist have compassion working on hospice,

You have made excellent points. I do not believe that health care professionals neglect to treat patients in palliative care in the correct settings. The care one receives is based on what type of locations they are in. Hospitals and hospice centers often have employees with higher education levels and an increased passion for their job. I believe that health care providers want to ensure that one is comfortable at the end of life. I have visited Alive Hospice here in Nashville and was able to see the the great amount of care they provided to their patients. I have attached a link to their website below. I am curious to know your opinion on why you think one would not receive adequate care at the end-of-life phase.

Professional caregivers who care for the dying must professionally employ high level technical skills while maintaining a compassionate focus on the problems facing the dying person and their families, often immersed in institutional politics, all the time suppressing their own anxieties. Meanwhile, providing a supportive environment that meets the needs of the terminally ill individual with confidence, whilst cultivating trust and feelings of dignity in the dying patient (DeSpelder & Strickland, 2005, 2015).

The ability for a patient to qualify for hospice care is based on the physician’s determination that their illness is not responding to treatment and the patient has 6 months or less to live. Illnesses that require hospice care in the adult population take a more predictable pattern than in pediatric and perinatal patients. This is not to say that the process of hospice care and dying is easier for the patients, their families, or the hospice team, but that there is more research in how to prepare for such care. Non-hospice nurses have a stronger foundation and better understanding of death and dying with regard to patients at this stage of life that allows them to be better equipped to initiate discussions of hospice care. It takes special training in psychosocial support to give adequate hospice care, but the base knowledge of nursing is more prepared for discussing end-of-life-care with older patients than with children. It is this ability to communicate that allows them to build the rapport that is crucial to improving the quality of dying.

Hospice is a concept of care that is based on the belief that meaningful living is achievable during a terminal illness that is free of interventions that prolong physiologic dying. The role of a hospice nurse is to take on a holistic approach to patient care that involves a careful evaluation of not only physical problems but also the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of the patient and the patient’s family (Hinkle & Cheever, 2014). The hospice nurse is culturally aware and sensitive in their approach to communication that respects beliefs, attitudes, and values of the patient and family about end-of-life care. The hospice nurse also provides support to families even after the death of the patient (Nies & McEwen, 2015).

They make decisions pertaining to the patient’s needs in consultation with medical experts. Having a loved one with a terminal illness can be stressful and demanding. This is where hospice care comes in. Most hospice care providers make regular visit to the patient’s home and provide additional care and support as necessary. Due to the nature of the illness, hospice care providers are on call 24 hours, seven days a week. The hospice care providers along with doctors, nurses, dieticians. Physical and occupational therapists, counselors, social workers, create a plan tailored to meet the patient’s needs. Although most patients receive hospice care at home, this is changing. Long term care facilities have also started providing hospice care services for patients, especially with illness like advanced/terminal cancer, dementia

For decades each field of medicine and the treatment of patients have been singled out and looked at as an independent specialty. This is not only the case in the United States but also in the United Kingdom. Recently different fields have begun to explore the possibilities that they are more similar to one another than different, and that Hospice Care is more than care for the terminally-ill cancer patients.

According to Communicating Health, hospice provides terminal patients with what is often referred to as the “good death;” it does not provide preventative or curative care, but instead focuses on the comfort of the patient. Rasmussen and McMenamin discussed this in further detail when detailing one of their responsibilities as social workers, making the patient’s final wishes a reality. While again this may sound depressing to a majority of the outside world. McMenamin smiled brightly, with fond memories, of those who aspired to continue gardening or see their children marry. As with all things, there were not always fond memories. McMenamin and Rasmussen expressed that they as hospice workers see patients at their worst. Sometimes they find that individuals they are providing care for were abusive to their families. Another negative side, they showed us was the wish cards. The cards detailed some of the things people wish for in hospice care (to be kept clean, not being a burden to their family, and not dying alone).

I learned that the goal of therapy in hospice situation is different from traditional therapy. Unlike traditional therapy which focuses on returning the patient to previous level of function; the goal of hospice care is promoting safety, independence, meaning and quality of life. Therefore physical therapy, occupational as well as other health care disciplines is focusing on enhancing quality of life, optimizing level of function of the patient. All interventions should lead toward improving function

All nurses wherever they practice have the same purpose which is to deliver the best outcomes for the patient. Many years ago, a public are unfamiliar with the concept of palliative care and hospice care. Even today, many of us don't have deep understanding about it.

Nursing is such a beautiful profession that allows us to be a part of the lives of patients from the beginning all the way to the end. It is a fact that our population is growing older and individuals are living longer. As nurses, today more than ever, we must be educated about end of life, grieving process and how cultural differences affect that process. According with the National Institute of Aging (2012), “End-of-life care is the term used to describe the support and medical care given during the time surrounding death”. The end of life, how people die and how they prefer to die differ from person to person. Thanks, in large part to advances in public health, medicine, and health care, most Americans no longer die suddenly from injury or infection. Instead, we live

Good post this week. Dying is a normal part of life, but death is often treated as a disease. As a result, many people are suffering alone, to die in the hospital. Palliative care is primarily focused on treating the symptoms of patients with diseases that threaten the expected prevention, diagnosis, and patients with serious or life experience, and to help their families is an important medical decisions. The ultimate goal of treatment is to improve the relaxation regardless, both patient and family quality of life for the diagnosis. Although palliative care approach to end of life and keen role of palliative care focuses aggressive symptom management and psychological focus on social support, unlike hospice care, it does