Topics About 'Palliative Care'.

"I am having a good day today!" My patient's greeting was a warm welcome as we started our visit. She was on the front porch, in her wheelchair, oxygen tubing snaking discretely behind her, the compressor's noise muffled and distant. The sunshine was...

Palliative wound care is much more than exudate and odor management. Maintaining optimal function and mobility is an important part of symptom control and supportive care as well. Optimize Function and MobilityTo optimize function and mobility in per...

I checked my phone as it buzzed with a text message: "Dad's in the ER." Heart sinking, I replied to my friend, Martha, "What's up?" She went on to explain that her dad, a long term Alzheimer's patient who lived in assisted living had taken a sudden t...

The skin is the largest organ of the body and can become dysfunctional at life's end, with loss of integrity, just like any other vital body system, with reduced ability to utilize nutrients and other factors necessary to sustain normal skin function...

"While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight...He instructed me and said to me, 'Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was...

Palliative care services are a very important resource for those patients who have been recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. Care needs fluctuate throughout the course of any life-limiting disease. No longer are patients required to terminate ...

We had just finished our Monday morning hospice report. As a group, we routinely meet for 30 minutes on Monday morning to share admissions and deaths over the weekend. I was preparing my schedule for the day, still thinking of a patient that had just...

In nursing school, I was drawn to the "down and dirty core of nursing" that hospice care provides the patient, family and the nurse. I came straight out of nursing school and was privileged to work for years with the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice care ce...

The elderly patient stared back at me with watery, vacant eyes while I leaned over to listen to her lungs and complete my assessment. Her lungs were clear and her heart rate remained steady and slow. She reached up to pull at her nasal cannula and he...

That I wasn't sure I would be able to, that I really didn't want to ever be in that situation. I got the job and was told that if we got any kids I probably wouldn't have to take care of them. We don't get many children on our services. It wasn't lon...

In a 10 minute period, she would go from hot to cold and back to hot again, requiring multiple trips to her room to adjust the a/c or add/subtract blankets, etc. To add to the fact that her call bell was so consistent that it was the cadence to which...

I recently spent 45 minutes talking about death, and hospice, with my husband's sister across the country. Her mother (my mother-in-law)-a delightfully quirky 91-year-old activist who still spends her days faxing her congressmen-just signed on with t...

November is National Palliative Care and Hospice Month I scrolled down through the EMR and found what I was looking for: Palliative Care Consult. As a hospice nurse, we often get referrals from Palliative Care and their consult is a great place to st...

Funny how you'll plan every aspect of every trip except the most important one you'll ever take (NHPCO, n.d.). The process of dying is a deeply personal, inevitable, and unique journey that every individual will make at some point in the circle of li...

I had never intended on becoming a nurse, however, that is the direction that God sent me in and I have not regretted it ever since. I loved the nursing home and getting to know all of the patients and their families. I never had grandparents and the...

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...

I slung my computer bag over my shoulder and pondered the question one of my nurse colleagues who worked at the hospital asked me. She wondered what my typical day was like. I wanted to laugh because "typical day" and "nursing" probably don't fit in ...

I felt physically threatened as the patient's grandson pushed too close to me, face red, eyes angry, and yelled, "There was no way I am taking those missing drugs! And I have no idea where they are!" He continued to yell loudly at his grandfather whi...

Sarah Jones, age 76, is a widow who lives alone. Due to a terminal condition, she is now on hospice. She has advanced breast cancer with a fungating malignant tumor. The tumor has broken through her skin and manifests as a malodorous, exuding, necrot...

Care for terminal patients is becoming a booming business as the Boomers come of age. Being one myself, I can tell you that Nursing care for these patients will only become more critical as shortages continue in the nursing field, even as new nursing...

I knocked the snow off my boots before knocking on the front door of the patient's home. His daughter, Clara, opened it and with a tired smile invited me in. Her father, Harold, was in a hospital bed was right in the middle of the living room, in fro...

AN recently interviewed Dr Terri Maxwell who is the chief clinical officer of Turn-Key Health where she is responsible for clinical care delivery, competence and quality. In addition, she serves as vice president, Clinical Education, Enclara Pharmaci...

I saw the owner of the small gift shop approaching me as I browsed through the cards. "May I help you find something?" she asked. I told her I was just looking around and asked her about the sign I had seen posted, "Going out of business due to healt...

Her niece met me at the door and whispered conspiratorially, "Don't use the word 'hospice.' I'm afraid it will make her give up." As she ushered me down the long hall to the dark room shut off from the world outside by long curtains that resolutely r...