Something to Think About

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...

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 volunteers are at the heart of end-of-life care—but their role goes far beyond what most people understand. Let's look at what draws people to this work, why self-awareness matters,...

We often replay the final moments of a loved one’s life — the sights, sounds, and emotions that felt so overwhelming. In truth, dying is rarely the peaceful scene we...

End-of-life care isn’t just clinical. It’s deeply personal. Before we can guide others through death, we must understand our own beliefs, fears, and experiences. When we face death honestly within...

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,...

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...

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...

How do you get a terminally-ill patient to accept hospice care?

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...

Today most hospices have some sort of a hospice house arrangement. It may be in a designated portion of a nursing facility or in a free standing building of its...

 90% of end of life care is education. People don’t die like they do in the movies, yet movies are our current role models. This leads to unrealistic expectations...

How does a person feel as a hospice patient?  Everyone is waiting on them, they are unable to do things for themselves. They have to wear diapers and probably don't want...

Part of "selling" hospice is to create trust and a bond during that first meeting. It takes people skills in addition to knowledge of hospice benefits...

Families are stressed and frightened and by the time they finally reach out for hospice services, they have already wanted and needed them for days if not weeks.

All the hours of talking, drinking coffee, and eating homemade pies was time spent healing, building trust, and educating. It wasn’t about blood pressures. It was about people, feelings, and...

I believe everyone has the right to be told once that they can’t be fixed. It is the physician’s job to compassionately and honestly give that information...  

Taking care of someone who is at the end of life is different from taking care of someone who is going to get better, BUT most people don’t know this—-including...

How do we get beyond the social conventions of strangers meeting and getting to know and trust each other in a very short time? From the time we ring the...