Topics About 'End Of Life'.

When first admitting a patient and their family into the hospice care experience, it is important to know that they are fearful of the unknown. Some view it as a death sentence and want to know what to expect. Common questions are, "How long do I hav...

Remember when you first started nursing school and didn't know what med/surg or gtts meant? I sure do, but soon nursing language became second nature. Now I can't even jot a quick sticky note to my partner without automatically writing, "see you p th...

It is always challenging to care for hospice patients. In some cases, they have suffered through a long debilitating illness, and we want their last days to be ones of peace and comfort. It is especially difficult for their family members to witness,...

A Typical DNR Scenario The 90-year-old man was whisked into the Emergency Department by the rescue squad. He was found on the floor of his kitchen by his daughter and son-in-law who rushed into the area almost at the same time as the gurney pushe...

How much time? She looked up at me with pleading eyes, her head resting on a freshly laundered pillow case and her hair, still damp, laid out against the white expanse to dry. Her voice was firm as she asked the question that was on her mind. Tak...

Has anyone read the book Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Life? I read this recently and it brought to light the idea that we really don't discuss end of life care in family practice. At least not in my program. I recently had a patient ...

I am always curious to hear others thoughts and opinions related to a topic that is on everyone's minds, in private conversation with colleges, and sometimes inferred in conversation with patients and families, however, that is never really explored ...

This week, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that home is now the most common place Americans die of natural causes. For centuries, death was viewed as a natural process and those dying were cared for at home by family and community member...

The call came in while at work. My mom's brother Steve had been rushed to a hospital. He was dying. I decided to go on the weekend when I was off, as my partner at work was out sick. I flew into Canada and made my way to the hospital. My aunt, a reti...

Difficult conversations are part of healthcare. However, when the news is that a patient is terminal, it might be a bit harder of a conversation than others. One physician found himself on the receiving end of a difficult chat that spurred him to sta...

Hospice: 3 Ways Hospice at the end of life is focused on the whole person and their needs for symptom management, their psychosocial needs as relates to their significant others, and their spiritual care at the end of life. In these three case st...

"To Suction or Not To Suction, End-of-Life & Hospice Patients" is an article I recently published in allnurses.com and the responses were very conflicting. As of today Sept. 13, 2018, there are over 16,000 views of the article and 3 pages of clin...

I've been an ICU RN for 15yrs, so I have dealt with End of Life Care plenty. I was always taught to either oral suction or deep suction with a suction catheter if your patient sounds like he or she needs suctioning. But of recent, I have run into som...

Jan busied herself at the bedside of her patient, a woman she had seen before during a similar admission for COPD. As the woman struggled to breathe, Jan could easily read the panic in her patient's eyes. She changed a sweaty pillowcase, put the head...

Death came to visit Friday, it was not kind, and it was not peaceful for my friend's mom-it was hard, she struggled so much, her mind was ready, but her body fought her to the bitter end; causing trauma to her loved ones who stayed by her side so she...

It's 0653. I pull up to the hospice unit, clock in, fill my coffee mug, and get my nursing brain printed out. At 0700, I count narcotics and take report on six patients. It's going to be a busy day, one of those days where I must control the chaos, t...

Just the other day, I talked with two different nurses who said they cried on the way home from work. One said that she had promised her son she'd take him to a movie after work that night, but her day was so emotionally distressing that when she got...

Talking about the end of life is not for the faint of heart. There are many obstacles, including our individual sense of immortality. It's such a serious topic that I'd like to start with the story of a man who came to see his doctor. He said, "Doc, ...

"If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." James 3:2 I reach down to touch Anne's* hand, my own fingers still chilled by the outside morning air. Her eyelids flutter, letting me know she ...

Now mind you this is not directed at the injured or the ones that are just acutely ill. The tear in the eye, the holding of a hand. The cry to fight harder, live longer. These are the scenes I see every day as an ICU nurse. I can understand these tho...

Family members of patients in the intensive care unit are an intricate piece in the end of life decision making process. However, families are not always as informed or involved as they would like to be. There are a multitude of articles relating fam...

The term "actively dying" has always struck me as amusing, because in the end, we're all going to die. So in a sense, no matter how healthy, we're all actively dying. Of course, when we say it at work, we mean that the patient is probably going to di...

The Hospice Nurse One of the realities of health care is that not all patients can be cured. The time comes for all of us when we face death. For some, it comes quickly and unexpectedly. For others, a terminal illness or condition is diagnosed, g...

The phone call I've been dreading comes at 0217. It's my night shift med aide, who informs me through tears that our much-loved resident, Evie*, has passed away after lingering for days in an unresponsive, but obviously uncomfortable state. She has r...

My greatest fear as a new student nurse was how was I going to cope when I saw my first dead person? I had never even had a relative who had died nor been to many funerals. In the UK we don't really have open coffins or calling hours so I had never e...