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?

Specializes in Home Health, Hospice.

Yes, that one is also one of my favorites!

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Critical Care/ ED.

Diane, thank you SO much for sharing that. It gave me chills.

PH

One of my absolute favorites:

"Upon the Seashore"

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

-- Henry Van Dyke

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One of my absolute favorites:

"Upon the Seashore"

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

-- Henry Van Dyke

Someone sent me that when my son died. It helped a lot.

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Hey all!

Not yet a nurse, but working on pre-reqs. I do home care for seniors and occasionally have hospice clients. One of my favorite books is Sacred Passage by Margaret Coberly, a long time hospice nurse. It is well grounded in ibetan Buddhist, and very readable. Her distillation of the Tibetan death trajectory model is excellent, and in my experience, very accurate. Michael, I love your posts, and am especially interested in your thoughts on this book, if you have read it?

Natalie

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

Natalie,

Pardon the sluggish response.

No, I have not read it… I cannot read. I am probably one of the few illiterate writers you will ever know.

Actually I can read, but only with special equipment, so it’s always a hassle. I get books from the library for the blind but there are lots of books which have never been recorded.

However, my wife reads a lot, and some of her favorite authors are Buddhists. She tells me about their perspectives and reads selected passages to me occasionally. I agree with you… Eastern philosophy is, in many ways, very highly evolved and sophisticated.

My brother is into Native American shamanism. He suggests books to me as well, but as is so often the case, they aren’t available in audio format… so I get him to tell me all about them. Our phone conversations sometimes run 2-3 hours.

Let me tell ya, there’s some pretty fascinating stuff out there to read and think about… if you’re into that sort of thing and have the time to do it.

Contrasting & comparing a broad range of spiritual perspectives is, I believe, more productive than glomming onto a single perspective and declaring that to be the one be-all and end-all perspective. Looking at a thing from a variety of angles reveals more about it than just looking at it from a single angle… which is why an ECG has 12 leads, not just one. Actually, the guy who invented the 12 lead ECG forgot to include a posterior view… it really ought to be amended to at least 13 leads.

And now of course, to round out one’s spiritual studies, some quantum physics really ought to be folded into the recipe.

Michael

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Hi Conurses:

I would soon like to sit for the Cert exam for Hospice. Any suggested readings that I should use. Is there a core study guide?

Thanks from South Jersey,

Noreen

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Yes, there is a core curriculum and a study guide. Your most economical alternative is to purchase a membership in HPNA and then the cost of the test is discounted and so are the study materials. If you go to the HPNA.org website you will find links to all the information you need.

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Thank you so, so much....What on earth would we do without a web site such as this.....live in the library like I use to do. LOL

Many thanks again,

Noreen

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about using certain terms to describe death, (ie:End of Life)

there is nothing wrong with using exact terms. Having untimely lost my husband years ago, I can tell you that people experiencing loss appreciate straight talk. Some of my friends struggled ridiculously with the words "we are so sorry to hear of jims passing" or that he "passed on" or "since jim is gone, or isn't here anymore". So, it was rather refreshing when one of my childrens classmates said "miss smith, I'm sorry that katie's dad died". All those other replacement words don't capture the magnitude of the situation.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

Marachne, there is room for hospice patients to receive palliative radiation treatments, or NG tubs, etc. If there is a treatment that helps to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life there is a hospice agency that will minimally consider and quite possibly approve the use of that treatment. In the Ann Arbor area the hospices are pretty proactive in the pursuit of comfort.

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A great resource is: 20 Common Problems in End of Life Care by Kinzbrunner, Weinreb, and Policzer. Also, the Core Curriculum for the Generalist Hospice and Palliative Nurse by the HPNA (Hospice and Palliative Nurse Association).

Good luck!

Sue

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Specializes in Maternity, med & Surg Onc, Hospice, Med.

Reg Read, What term do you suggest?

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