Something to Think About

Question: What is a Hospice House? In England during the 1970’s, where the hospice model originated, hospice care was provided not in a person’s home but in a freestanding building...

Question: What are your ideas for supporting and learning from other members of the hospice team? Life today seems so hectic. We are balancing career, family, social and often civic...

Question: I wanted to know more about your thoughts in regards to the role of Social Work in Hospice care including bereavement services. An interesting question since over the years...

Being active helps us poop therefore the less active we are, and people approaching the end of their life through disease or old age gradually have less and less energy...

What do you want me to write about? Getting a terminally ill patient to accept hospice care that is being offered to them. They really need it. Hospice has a...

Question: How do you handle your personal struggles when you have a family member or friend placed under hospice care and you are a hospice professional? How do you deal...

REQUEST: Write about the role of a hospice nurse in working within a dysfunctional familial environment that involves the patient. What is the definition of “dysfunction,” really? The dictionary defines...

How can Hospice and Nursing Facilities work well together?I think there are as many ways for a hospice to work with a nursing facility as there are hospices and facilities...

Some people have talked to me about “bad” hospice experiences so I want to address the subject. Unfortunately, there are agencies calling themselves hospice that really don’t practice the philosophy....

Hi Barbara, I just finished a CNA/HHA program and am looking for a career in hospice work. What options do I have? I took hospice training in 2001 through Kaiser...

QUESTION: Talk about dying at home, in the hospital, or in a hospice care facility. I think it is fair to say that most people, given the choice, would like...

QUESTION: “Life sustaining vs. comfort care, where do you draw the line?” This is a question everyone faced with a life threatening illness and their significant others asks themselves. We...

Many physicians are reluctant to recommend hospice. It is sad and confusing why they would not give their patients the guidance and comfort that trained hospice professionals can offer. Maybe...

Question: I have been diagnosed terminally ill with lung cancer and liver cancer. I am not at this moment yet, but wonder, how long? No one can be specific as...

From the web site I received a request asking me to tell how I first began my job at Hospice Care of Mid America in Kansas City Mo. In 1981...

Hi Nurse G,I think hospice care and the role nurses play has changed considerably and wonder if that is why you are not feeling the fulfillment you once did. Over...

I wrote this poem one day after seeing two particular patients. One was a woman in her 40's who was working through the anger of not being able to see...

Linda, an RN living in Arkansas, is sharing her story with us. I remember Michael so clearly because of his last wish and how the hospice team helped to make...

Someone asked me to write about “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” At first I thought it was a prank, and maybe it was, but the question made me wonder how the...

I had the pleasure of spending three days with a man and his wife. We’ll call the man Harry and his wife Lila. The days were spent mainly feeding Harry,...

The following story had been written by one of our Excela Health Hospice nurses, Kim Kistler. I had read it about 2 years ago and always remembered it as such...