Benefits and misconceptions of Hospice
Hospice care is provided to patients with a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice care aims to make a person’s remaining time with us as comfortable and as meaningful as possible rather than seek a cure. This may mean pain relief, managing symptoms and nursing care, as well as emotional support and help with everyday tasks. Hospice care can be in a patient’s home, hospital or long term care facility. A team of professionals work together to reach these goals.
Hospice not only cares for patients, but cares the family, friends, and caregivers and offers them support through this journey with expert advice and provide services to assist with caring for a loved one.
There are many misconceptions about hospice and patients and families are very leery about the service. The biggest misconception surrounding hospice care is that once a patient is on hospice they only have days or a few weeks of life. Signing on to hospice doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Another one is that morphine hastens death. Morphine which is an opioid is used to manage pain and shortness of breath. Before morphine is initiated, patients are treated with other forms of comfort.
Some reliable sources to reference are the following:
On the website Virtual Hospice, it explains that morphine is an opioid that helps maintain a person’s comfort during the disease and dying process. The person would decline with or without the use of morphine. The morphine just keeps the patient comfortable during the process to manage pain and respiratory distress issues.
The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care report that there is little evidence that the use of opioids or morphine at end of life hastens death. Opioids do cause respiratory depression, but when administered correctly at end of life, this practice doesn’t lead to earlier death.
An article published in Science Daily states that evidence shows when morphine is used correctly if doesn’t shorten death. It is absorbed into a person’s system very quickly and also wears off quickly, therefore well tolerated and doesn’t make patients unconscious. The consensus is that patient’s decline at end of life is happening whether they are administered morphine or not.
Hospice care encompasses compassion, care, service, and emotional counsel for patients and families. Hospice care does not stop with the end of life. Bereavement support is offered for the ones left behind through support groups, meeting with grief counselors, and other therapeutic services. These programs are tailored for all age groups from young children to the elderly.
Benefits of Hospice/Palliative Care.
BENEFITS OF HOSPICE
• Palliative Care for patients who choose to optimize their comfort and quality of life.
• Hospice Care for patient’s life-limiting conditions who want to be cared for at home or in a skilled nursing environment.
• Nurses who visit regularly to provide support, monitor symptoms and act as a liaison with PCP to try and prevent hospitalizations.
• Hospice aides to provide assistance with ADLs.
• End of Life Counseling to address how the patient and family prepare and cope with the end of life.
• Spiritual Care in the home.
• Bereavement Counseling
• Volunteers can provide companionship, respite, run errands, provide transportation.
• Pet therapy
• Complementary Therapies such as massage, healing touch, reiki, and reflexology
This blog was very informative and well set up! The videos in your blog about Hospice Care were great! I liked the benefits of hospice care to make it more clear that this is not a negative element of the health care field but actually a very beneficial one. I learned a lot on how you described hospice care and it gave me a better idea on how to word this aspect of the field. Great job!
I found this blog post to be very effective in providing information in a generally accessible manner. The overall layout of texts and choice of pictures were consistent with the message of the broad range of empathetic services available to individuals and families receiving hospice care. A few things I found surprising were the misconceptions of the use of morphine as well as the extensiveness of in the range of services covered through hospice care. Services that target a range of ages was surprising but most surprising was the fact that hospice care did not indicate a life expectancy of a few days or weeks. After reading the blog I understand how a misconstrued understanding of hospice care may turn individuals off, but truly understanding hospice leads me to viewing it as less intimidating and as more comforting.
Hi Jennifer,
Thank you for sharing this information on hospice services. I greatly respect those who provide this type of service as it cannot be easy to take on other people’s grief. When I worked in rehab, the hospice nurses would come in and it was a great comfort to the patient and their family members.