“We’ve done the best we can and we can’t fix you...”
Someone has to have the courage to say “We’ve done the best we can. We can’t fix you. Let us help you have some quality time”.
Someone has to have the courage to say “We’ve done the best we can. We can’t fix you. Let us help you have some quality time”.
If we don’t legally make our wishes known in writing and generally notarized, healthcare professionals will make those decisions for us...
In the days to weeks before gradual death occurs a person realizes, at last, that they are dying. They may not share that realization with anyone, but they know. If...
Filling out an Advance Directive when you are healthy is different than filling one out when you are elderly or living with a serious illness...
Number one, we are all going to die at some point. Of course the operative words here are “at some point.” If we are told death will be the outcome...
"When do we say our final goodbye to someone who is dying?" Barbara Karnes talks about how we say goodbye in stages. We say goodbye many, many times.
Our job as an end of life specialist is to address the elephant in the room, to be direct and honest in the gentlest way possible. We are not doing...
There are many of the same circumstances with today’s coronavirus as we faced with HIV/AIDS in the early years— lack of medical knowledge, lack of guidance, and fear. I think...
I'm sorry to say when a family member is dying it can bring us together and be our finest hour as a family or it can bring out the worse...
We do this all the time. We enter tense situations where people are frightened and unsure, with people who have never seen us before. This is what we do: We create...
You have to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Learn from your patient/family interactions. At the same time read everything you can get your hands on...
...I remember being with my mother in my hospice Medical Director’s office. He was explaining to my mother his medical findings as they related to her illness. I, being a...