mpingo

I'm hoping that you can agree that, as in any profession, good, well-intentioned protocols can be abused. I recently took care of a patient in hospice who was not terminally ill, only chronically ill. In my opinion, she died from being over-medicated by hospice, which, in my opinion, caused or exacerbated her depression, which led to her deciding that life was too hard for her (she was in little to no physical pain, other than possibly some arthritis pain), and she decided to end it by refusing to eat. This experience has left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth regarding medication policies by this hospice care agency. Since talking about this experience on another nursing forum, I've read a post from another member on that board, who told of her experience of having a patient in hospice who wasn't terminally ill, but only chronically ill. She was a brittle diabetic, and since she was admitted to hospice her diabetis was no longer monitored adequately, as part of their policy of not prolonging life, and she died unnecessarily of improperly controlled diabetis. I think that it's time that our hospice agencies undergo a massive re-evaluation of some of their policies. If the agencies or their regulatory authorities can't or won't do that, then I think that governmental agencies should investigate and assess what is going on in these hospice agencies, and perhaps create some kind of watchdog organization, to make sure that some patients are not being moved into hospice in error, and to make sure that some patients are not being enabled to die that want to die for all the wrong reasons.

I realize that this is an old thread, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a homeopathic hospice service anywhere in the Chicago area. I am a nurse who is interested in working for such a service, if it exists. And for those who are unfamiliar with homeopathy, in reference to some of the previous posts in this thread, using homeopathy is different than using herbs. Homeopathy involves the use of various substances--herbs, minerals, animal substances--that have been distilled down to minute amounts and instilled into small pellets that are dissolved under the tongue. Their use stimulates the body to work on itself, in whatever way is desired, rather than doing something for the body from the outside. So while they may sometimes be made from herbs, the dose of those herbal substances is miniscule by comparison to using the straight herbs. The effects of the use of homeopathy are usually much more effective when they are prescribed by a qualified homeopathic doctor (many of whom are also MDs--allopathic doctors), rather than when people self-treat according to the labels on the remedy containers. They also usually have no side-effects, and the healing is usually more thorough and long-term than that achieved with allopathic medicine (prescription drugs). For example, I have recovered from strep throat and a form of rheumatoid arthritis with the use of homeopathy and no prescription drugs. I recently had a pretty negative experience working alongside a conventional hospice group that seemed to overmedicate the patients I was working for, often adding new medications to respond to the side effects of the previous medications, rather than evaluating the possible decrease or elimination of those medications causing the troublesome side effects. So I'm looking for a more holistic group that I might be able to work for.