Something to Think About
a blog on end of life
The body gives us clues when the dying process begins. Learning to recognize changes in eating, sleeping, and socialization can help you understand what is happening and know when it's...
When someone you love no longer responds, it can feel frightening. Let me show you the simple, comforting care that still matters in the final days before death.
New hospice nurses often ask me what matters most. It isn't medications or procedures. Hospice nursing is about teaching, guiding, and helping families feel safe as they walk through one...
Grief doesn't erase the difficult parts of a relationship. If there were hurts, regrets, or things left unsaid, those feelings may remain after death. Healing begins when we allow ourselves...
When a dying parent refuses to tell the rest of the family about a terminal diagnosis, should you keep the secret or encourage open conversations?
Most people don't know what to do or can do in the final hours before death. Here are gentle ways families and caregivers can create a meaningful goodbye and bring...
Caregivers are often alone when caring for someone who is dying. Written guidance can provide reassurance and support when it is needed most.
Food becomes a major concern for families when special person is dying. This article explains why the body naturally stops eating and how caregivers can respond with less frustration.
Hospice and palliative care are not the same—and understanding that difference matters. If the goal is comfort and a natural death, certain medical interventions no longer fit. Let’s talk about...
As death approaches, taking a blood pressure is one more unnecessary intrusion for the patient and for the family. Will what you learn affect anything?
Healing is not just about the physical body. We are mental and emotional beings that have a physical body.
It is hard to comprehend that our special person will die no matter what we do. No matter how many treatments, how much medicine, or how much food we give,...
Dame Cicely Saunders — an important and influential physician, nurse, social worker, and writer in end of life care — established a specific facility to care for those people that...
What do you say to someone to get them to accept hospice? Well, one thing to say after explaining the services hospice offers is to ask what they think will...
Everyone dies. Death will not be conquered. It can be forestalled and that is where the medical model comes in. We learn through trying. The medical rounds physician is correct...
Death from disease and old age doesn’t just happen. There are signs and changes that begin occurring months before death arrives. You can use those signs as a reference indicating...
Hospice isn’t about giving up—it’s about support, comfort, and quality of life. Here is the truth behind 4 common hospice myths families often believe.
How do you get a terminally-ill patient to accept hospice care?
Someone recently asked me, “What do Hospice volunteers do?” She was interested in becoming one. She was most interested in helping in an area most people are afraid to even...
End of life care is about bonding and developing trust — not just with the patient, but with the family and the caregiver, as well...
By the time the family has mustered the courage to call, they are usually at their wit's end. They probably have needed services weeks...
