Something to Think About

a blog on end of life

We love sharing helpful info on our blog.

About the BK Team
When An Alzheimer’s Patient Begins Hospice Care

Hospice provides care and services for people in the last six months of their life. A doctor must specify, in his/her best opinion, that this person has less than  six...

The Anger Surrounding Narcotic Use at End of Life

Taking care of someone at the end of life is different from taking care of someone who is going to get better—-but most people don’t know that either. Unless we...

"Believers" and "Non-Believers" Facing End of Life?  Is There A Difference?

We human beings are complicated creatures. We approach death in the way we have approached living and according to our personality. Our belief systems are part of that living. Sometimes...

What Do You Do When Words Become Meaningless?

I think we healthcare workers rely on our words as our offering. Explanations, suggestions, instructions, even using words to offer condolences and trying to comfort. And yes, words are a...

Advance Directives Are Not Written In Stone

Filling out an Advance Directive when you are healthy is different than filling one out when you are elderly or living with a serious illness...

Why Do We Lose Rational Behavior During Times of Intense Trauma?

Our base nature comes out when we are in pain, other worldly, and on high doses of all kinds of medications.  We are unconsciously expressing the terrible situation we were...

Why I Believe a Person Should Be Told They Can't Be Fixed

Number one, we are all going to die at some point. Of course the operative words here are “at some point.” If we are told death will be the outcome...

Helping A Family Decide Whether to End Life Support

If you have a good, amicable relationship then get them together and say, with caring in your heart, "I am going to tell you some things I have learned about...

We Euthanized our Cat Yesterday

She is gone, the house seems emptier. Baxter cat (who we let smell her before she left) seems at a bit of a loss, as he wanders the house. Is...

Let's View Living as More Than the Quantity of Breaths We Take

I want the medical profession, the medical model we find in doctors’ offices and hospitals, to do everything possible to help me not only regain my health, but to return...

When It Comes To End of Life Care, It Takes a Village

Hospice is widely known for providing end of life care. It has grown in size and in its original scope of services. Even its definition of “end of life care”...

Is Increased Sleep a Sign of Approaching Death?

With old age and no active debilitating disease process, all the signs of approaching death (less eating, more sleeping and gradual decline in social interests) occur, BUT they occur over...

The Sacred Moment of Death

All the work we do leads up to the moment of death. Our goal is to guide and support those present through the moment the last breath occurs.

How do you tell someone something they don’t want to hear?

It is our job, our responsibility as end of life workers to be honest with our patients. In a “don’t tell mom” situation I first assess where everyone is, who...

What Does a Funeral Do?

Funerals are for the living. They are to bring comfort. Recognizing the life lived by the person that died is comfort to the living...

Do I Stay In Contact After the Death?

We in health care, enter a family's life at a challenging, sad and fearful time. It is our acts of thoughtfulness that will be remembered and provide comfort.

Medical Interventions on a  Body That Can’t Be Fixed

How tragic that none can come forward and say, "Your father is dying. Let's stop all these extras and keep him comfortable”. Family as well as many individual physicians do...

Entering Into "Precious Time"

In our medical society today, it seems to be very difficult for physicians to tell patients and/or families that death is approaching; That this special person will die, and probably...

The True Value of End of Life Support

A hospice referral is a win-win. You win if they say it is too soon and youare not appropriate for hospice care, or you win by coming onto the hospiceprogram...

Hospice Services Pulled for Dementia Patient

There is a huge void in our medical system that so many families living with dementia fall into. These families have a loved one too sick and require too much...

Supporting Survivors of Suicide Loss

Part of normal grief is all the questions we will never have answers to, the whys and what if’s? With death by suicide those questions are ten fold. With a...

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