Something to Think About

Those of us who work in end-of-life care walk beside people and families during one of the most intimate times of life. Because of the emotional nature of this work,...

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...

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?

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...

In the ideal picture, the goal is the patient’s death. Everything that is done before the death is preparation for the actual moment death occurs. Everything after the death gradually eases...

We tend to live our lives like gerbils on a wheel, going round and round but really going nowhere. Day in and day out, same old, same old, fall into...

Working with end of life in the medical field often leaves us feeling like outliers. The medical model is to fix people. Working with dying generally isn’t addressed in training. (It’s...

support people who are dyingBeing involved with end of life care is not something most people want to do, so what brings you? 

Once we get up the courage to call hospice, we want to see you immediately.  Actually, we needed to see you, hear your guidance and advice, and receive your services yesterday. Families...

Why is the patient being discharged, you ask? Is it because the patient just didn’t decline as rapidly as expected? Yes, that can be the situation...

Grief is like an open wound. When we healthcare workers experience a personal loss, every patient scrapes open our own wound of personal grief.  

Dying isn't like it is in the movies. We don't know what it is like to die from disease or old age and while everyone is going to do it,...

We are not able to fix everyone. The physical body is programmed to die. It is made to die. So at some point the medical professionals will have to have...

"How do you reach out to a non-religious person who believes the end is the end?" You don't...

In today’s hospice environment time spent with patients and families seem to be what agencies have the least to offer. My suggestion is the chaplain can fill in that time...

We support others in their belief system no matter what we believe. It is not about us...