hospice

[anurseadvocate]

I am wondering what other units do when a patient is placed on Hospice but wishes to continue dialysis, esp for those patients who are not at bedridden stage and are still up and about but need hospice. Thx. RenalRuth

[workingmomRN]

I think that most people do not realize that nurses grieve like other people, but in our job we are expected to be emotionally detached. If you truly care for others, there will be times that you can be emotionally exhausted ( I have heard it termed compassion fatigue). The feelings that you have are not wrong, they are normal & it is OK to feel that way.

I am wary of other nurses who don't have any feelings for their patients. I wouldn't want someone like that to be my nurse.

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

Wouldn't dialysis keep someone alive until their heart gave out? What is the patient decides to stop dialysis? Has anyone had FIRST HAND OBSERvATION of a patient who has stopped dialysis. RenalRuth

Yes- when I was a hospice nurse, we had several pts over the years who were in our unit because they had decided to stop dialysis. I was with a few of them at the moment of their deaths. All died after being in a nonresponsive state, and all the deaths were peaceful.