Recommended Reading for Hospice Nurses

Specialties Hospice

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I am completely new to hospice nursing. Would some of you extend yourselves to forming a recommended reading list? I would be very appreciative .

-Deanna

Oh, and can we make it a sticky?

Okay Dokey.... Actually the term "palliative care" always makes me mad. I think IT is disgusting. "Palliative care" (to me) is care that the insurance company will reimburse and the acute care hospital will pass off to the pt and family as "quality of life" while they hook 'em up to PCA pumps to infuse chemotherapy (or terminaltherapy, as one pt once called it.) The term "palliative care" makes me want to puke. I'll go sit down now....

Specializes in Med-Surg, ER, ICU, Hospice.

That is interesting… an aversion to the term “palliative care.”

Whenever people have a bad experience they will associate whatever words were used with that bad experience. I ran into a lady re-stocking vegetables in the grocery store just a few days ago and we got to talking and she asked what I did and I said “write” and she said “what?” and I gave her my card and she immediately said “I hope that isn’t like hospice,” and then started talking about sitting with her aunt (who had been in hospice) and how awful it was etc. She suddenly changed from a nice lady putting out vegetables into an angry woman. I just sort of skedaddled.

As you know, hospice can be very touch-and-go under even the best of circumstances and with even the most skilled practitioners. Nowadays, with nursing shortages and a hi-volume, hi-income business strategy being used by many agencies I expect there will be a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth… regardless of what we call it.

A number of years ago, when I was first starting out, I received a call at home one evening from ER saying they had a hospice pt there. Whoa! The last thing I wanted was my hospice pts in ER! So down I went and Lo & Behold… it was not one of my pts at all. It was a terminal pt, but not a hospice pt. However, she could not bring herself to say the ‘D’ word (death or dying) and she could not bring herself to say the ‘T’ word (terminal) and I don’t know if she even knew the ‘P’ word (palliative.) But she did understand the word “hospice” and apparently felt that was the least frightening way she knew to describe her condition.

The people who originally invented hospice came up with an almost perfect word – “hospice.” It has no negative association, (or at least it didn’t then… maybe it does now) no doctrinal connotations, no heavy baggage at all. It was warm & fuzzy & friendly.

It is fascinating to look at the intellectual and conceptual ways in which humans use words… how they link (or don’t link) them with reality. I once had a lady (terminal Ca) who said, “Cancer… that’s not so bad. It’s just a word.” That inoffensive little “word” killed her, but she found it less scary to think of it as just a word.

Anyway, how did it happen that hospice switched from “hospice” to “end of life care?” Who thought that up? Does anyone know? Was it a policy change? Was it a philosophical change? Was it done consciously in an organized fashion or was it just sort of an accident that gained momentum? Has it ever occurred to anyone to ask pts & fams (perhaps take a survey) which term they prefer? And what fascinates me most of all is why hospice nurses (at least in this forum) are so defensive about it. You cannot even use the lame old excuse, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it,” because even that is not true.

Michael

Thanks so much! I am a new RN (Med-Surg) who would like to go into oncology or hospice nursing next. I will look into this book.

"Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology" by Barbara Roberts, former Oregon Governer - she lost her husband to prostate CA while in office. Read it several times and give it to the families.

Recently finished "Final Gifts". As said before, this is a great read. The book uses the term" Nearing Death Awareness" for the mental process often experienced as a person declines toward death. I also just finished the first of three books by Michael Holmes, "Crossing the Creek". I certainly appreciated the thoughtfulness and insight that is shared based on his experiences with the dying. The tone of the book is soft and appealing. These books help give me a vocabulary to discuss this unique process with staff new to hospice. There is value to be able to reflect on the dignity and importance of recognizing the complexity and opportunities often missed in the dying process.

Hello, Be Excellent, nice to hear from you once again, missed having your input here for some time.

Specializes in Med-Surg, ER, ICU, Hospice.

This evening my wife & I watched the movie “Two Weeks.” Sally Fields stars as the hospice patient… very well done… a couple of little glitches but very well done all in all. I recommend it.

Michael

Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

This evening my wife & I watched the movie “Two Weeks.” Sally Fields stars as the hospice patient… very well done… a couple of little glitches but very well done all in all. I recommend it.

Michael

I agree Michael I, myself, had only watched this movie recently.

I cried like a baby but was well worth seeing it.

Thanks for the suggestions I do appreciate your input and thought provoking posts. :)

I also saw the movie "Two Weeks", thought it to be an excellent

portrayal of family/caregiving dynamics, which is so much a part of what we do.

I was a little disappointed with the ending, I thought they could have done a better job of culminating the story to provide a more powerful

message/lesson.

Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

Have been through the posts again and have written down some great reading ideas.

Thank you to those that have posted suggested reading material.

We can surely all learn from each other in this wonderful area of Hospice. :)

Specializes in Med-Surg, ER, ICU, Hospice.

Allow Mystery…

I may have had a fly or some wax in my ear, but I think the hospice nurse in Two Weeks actually said “millimeters” instead of “milligrams” when talking about adjusting the pain meds. I laughed but did not back it up to check if I mis-heard.

The death scene was grade B Hollywood… not realistic.

Like you, the ending took me by surprise. The movie was gong along nicely and then all of a sudden it just quit.

I did get a huge kick out of when the dying mother took the movie camera away from her son (who kept making movies and asking her questions… like he was a journalist instead of a son.) Then she turned the camera on him and asked him what it was like to have his mother dying and how did that make him feel. I could really identify with her on that one.

The scene with the 3 kids (after the funeral) playing poker for the leftover narcotics was funny.

And yes, it was a tear-jerker.

I enjoyed it.

Michael

I didn't read all of the responses but my favorite is called "The Final Act of Living" it is truly an awesome book!!!!

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