Has being a nurse changed your outlook on...

Nurses General Nursing

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...how you would like your end of life care to be handled? After today I know I'd want care to be withdrawn if I ever got to a point that my pts were at today (terminal illness/stroke/vent/unresponsive). It just seems tortuous to put someone through all of that.

I'm a HUGE advocator for hospice!! love love love hospice!

Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I'm a HUGE advocator for hospice!! love love love hospice!

AMEN times a hundred!

Hospice gets a bad reputation for just "doping people up on morphine" but it is so great and such a great resource for families. My FIL was on home hospice care the last week of his life (he was dx with a rare lung cancer 10 days before he passed, it took a few days to get transferred from the hospital to a nursing home to home hospice care). They provided daily nursing visits and so much support for the family. When he died peacefully at home, we just called the hospice facility and they handled the rest.

Specializes in Geriatric Psychiatric.

Absolutely unequivocally emphatically YES! Seeing the invasive things we do to people on a daily basis because the family and doctor are unable to let go or even uninformed is horrible. Futile, undignified, painful procedures are not only disturbing but a gross misuse of resources. I always try to bring up hospice and palliative care options with families; they are not always receptive but sometimes I hope it at least gets them thinking.

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