Something to Think About

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...

It has been almost six months since my husband of 62 years died. As an end of life educator I have taught about loss and grief, and even wrote a booklet about it. BUT...

Our body is programmed to die. We are born. We experience, and then we die...

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...

This is another aspect of grief I didn’t know until now that I am living it. Who am I if I am only one? What have I wanted to do...

Most people, if they had their choice, would want to be in their home with family and the dog or cat on the bed when they die. YET, most people...

I’ve noticed people are hesitant to talk about the person that died or use their name...

We enter peoples’ lives as professionals. We are knowledgeable, supportive, caring, and personable. However, we are not best friends, we are not even friends, really.

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...

Now I have to learn how to be a widow. How to create a new life, a new way of being. I am truly alone. 

Death has touched us all, some more recently than others.  Grief has no actual timeline, no end point where we are suddenly “fine”.  Each of us responds to our loss...

The physician is frontline, the top of the pyramid in healthcare. All care follows from there. The physician can set the tone for the entire patient experience. 

Our job as end of life workers is to educate. We walk a thin line. Our words can be heard and misunderstood so easily. They can be interpreted differently than...

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.  

The role of any end of life worker is to begin teaching  immediately, on the first visit -- teaching about approaching death, what to look for, and what to do. That’s...

Our role models from movies and TV show us that dying is gentle, often poetic, certainly not scary or messy. Movies make dying look comfortable.