Many have been concerned that the changing Medicare programs will cease to provide hospice care but, as this quote from Investors.com explains, the new programs will actually open up more opportunities for patients:
People in hospice care no longer have to give up getting curative treatment, thanks to a new law. It allows Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, to cover simultaneous hospice and curative care for children with terminal illnesses. Medicare, which covers seniors and disabled people, will offer 15 similar projects. For example, someone with heart disease can get cardiac drugs while receiving hospice care.
Although some patients may choose to refuse curative treatment, there are many who would like to receive said treatment in the comfort and peace of a hospice rather than a bustling and impersonal hospital.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Hospice Volunteers Make a Difference
Three mornings a week Kelsey Crawford starts her day in the company of an 89-year-old woman with short white hair. As she enters the home of the woman, she sees her sitting comfortably with a blanket snuggly wrapped around her body. Her head barely reaches the height of the chair that Crawford normally finds her in. The woman looks away from the television and greets Crawford with a warm smile. Crawford can think of no better start to her day.
As this quote from a Kansan.com article illustrates, it is not only professionals and their patients who participate in hospice care. Many hospice programs accept and encourage volunteers who share some of their time to entertain and aid their charges. These volunteers add yet another dimension of comfort to the hospice experience that is simply not available in a traditional hospital.
As this quote from a Kansan.com article illustrates, it is not only professionals and their patients who participate in hospice care. Many hospice programs accept and encourage volunteers who share some of their time to entertain and aid their charges. These volunteers add yet another dimension of comfort to the hospice experience that is simply not available in a traditional hospital.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Discussing Care
One issue that prevents some from utilizing hospice care is the simple fact that many doctors are resistant to discussing such issues with their patients until it may be too late to do so. This was the topic of a recent survey, described in the following quote from a NY Times article:
The researchers surveyed 4,074 doctors who took care of cancer patients, instructing them to imagine one who had only four to six months left, but was still feeling well. Then the doctors were asked when they would discuss the prognosis, whether the patient wanted resuscitation or hospice care, and where he or she wanted to die.
The results came as a surprise: the doctors were even more reluctant to ask certain questions than the researchers had expected. Although 65 percent said they would talk about the prognosis “now,” far fewer would discuss the other issues at the same time: resuscitation, 44 percent; hospice, 26 percent; site of death, 21 percent. Instead, most of the doctors said they would rather wait until the patients felt worse or there were no more cancer treatments to offer.
While it is difficult to discuss end of life care, a bit of forethought and planning can make this time as easy and comfortable as possible for both patient and family.
The researchers surveyed 4,074 doctors who took care of cancer patients, instructing them to imagine one who had only four to six months left, but was still feeling well. Then the doctors were asked when they would discuss the prognosis, whether the patient wanted resuscitation or hospice care, and where he or she wanted to die.
The results came as a surprise: the doctors were even more reluctant to ask certain questions than the researchers had expected. Although 65 percent said they would talk about the prognosis “now,” far fewer would discuss the other issues at the same time: resuscitation, 44 percent; hospice, 26 percent; site of death, 21 percent. Instead, most of the doctors said they would rather wait until the patients felt worse or there were no more cancer treatments to offer.
While it is difficult to discuss end of life care, a bit of forethought and planning can make this time as easy and comfortable as possible for both patient and family.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Extraordinary Measures
When Hospice Care Corporation’s Regional Inpatient Care Center opened one year ago, their goal was to provide their patients with the highest level of service in a home-like caring manner. But, you’ll find that the Hospice Care Regional Inpatient Center is quite different from most medical facilities in more ways than one. For example, their visiting hours, policies on food, beverages, children, and pets and even overnight stays for guests are far more relaxed.
However, another difference is not so obvious…it’s their patient beds. The beds were no ordinary purchase, because these are no ordinary beds. Hospice Care spared no expense for high-tech beds made by Völker which stimulate circulation, allow better physical positioning for their users, and just plain look great. The beds were designed to incorporate topical stimulation, along with other features, to have a variety of positive effects on a person’s body and state of mind.
Hollywood has taken notice, and in the 2010 movie release, ‘Extraordinary Measures’ featuring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, the Völker bed is featured. 'Extraordinary Measures' is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family's future to pursue a cure for his children's life threatening disease.
Patients in rehabilitation centers and nursing homes today arrive with more major health problems and live longer than in previous generations. The need for beds and other equipment that can improve their quality of life has never been greater.
Cynthia Woodward
Hospice Care Corporation
However, another difference is not so obvious…it’s their patient beds. The beds were no ordinary purchase, because these are no ordinary beds. Hospice Care spared no expense for high-tech beds made by Völker which stimulate circulation, allow better physical positioning for their users, and just plain look great. The beds were designed to incorporate topical stimulation, along with other features, to have a variety of positive effects on a person’s body and state of mind.
Hollywood has taken notice, and in the 2010 movie release, ‘Extraordinary Measures’ featuring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, the Völker bed is featured. 'Extraordinary Measures' is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family's future to pursue a cure for his children's life threatening disease.
Patients in rehabilitation centers and nursing homes today arrive with more major health problems and live longer than in previous generations. The need for beds and other equipment that can improve their quality of life has never been greater.
Cynthia Woodward
Hospice Care Corporation
Monday, May 10, 2010
Hospice CNA
by Karen Williams
A hospice is defined as a medical facility providing emotional and mental health care services for patients who are terminally ill along with their families. A CNA providing services in a hospice, is generally referred to as hospice CNA. A CNA with considerable experience and a regular CNA certification can take up job at a hospice, no additional qualifications are needed. A hospice CNA can either get employed at a hospice center or at a patient's home.
A hospice nurse usually provides solace and comfort to patients who are at the end of their life by taking care of them and their respective families too. Thus they provide both emotional and physical support to the patients and families. A hospice nurse usually takes complete care of the patients by administering medications on time and providing massages to provide comfort, if any required. They generally take utmost care of their patients and find every possible way to keep them away from pain.
They even educate the families of patients and teach them the methods of taking care of their loved ones, if the patients prefer to be taken care of, by their families, instead of being in hospital. This way they ensure that the patient's last days are lead in the comfort of their loved ones.
In case, a hospice nurse gets employed to take care of a terminally ill patient, then at times they even prefer to do some simple household chores, so that, the patient's family members get maximum time to spend with the patient. This gives the families some more time to be spent with their loved one, who is on the death bed, counting days.
On an average, a hospice nurse can earn up to $57,280 a year. Being a hospice nurse, is not a child's play. They need to have a lot of patience, need to know how to keep their cool at times of stress, need to be cheerful and pleasant, should be friendly, so that they can easily build a rapport with the patient, should be able to easily communicate with the family members in such a manner that, the family members understand what they want to convey. They need to be able to provide comfort and solace to the family members.
They should be wise enough and able to keep the stress resulting from the job, off their own personal life. Their job is really demanding and an emotional one too. A hospice nurse needs to be an epitome of incredible compassion, spirituality, patience. Also, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds is also necessary.
If you are an youngster pursuing education in CNA and are interested in taking up a job in hospice, then, try to utilize the rotation policy of your school and take up work in a hospice setting, this way you can get a feel of the typical life of a hospice CNA.
Karen Williams has worked as a CNA for several years and now runs a CNA Training information website to assist others looking to start or further their careers in the nursing industry. For more information visit: http://www.yourcnatrainingguide.com
A hospice is defined as a medical facility providing emotional and mental health care services for patients who are terminally ill along with their families. A CNA providing services in a hospice, is generally referred to as hospice CNA. A CNA with considerable experience and a regular CNA certification can take up job at a hospice, no additional qualifications are needed. A hospice CNA can either get employed at a hospice center or at a patient's home.
A hospice nurse usually provides solace and comfort to patients who are at the end of their life by taking care of them and their respective families too. Thus they provide both emotional and physical support to the patients and families. A hospice nurse usually takes complete care of the patients by administering medications on time and providing massages to provide comfort, if any required. They generally take utmost care of their patients and find every possible way to keep them away from pain.
They even educate the families of patients and teach them the methods of taking care of their loved ones, if the patients prefer to be taken care of, by their families, instead of being in hospital. This way they ensure that the patient's last days are lead in the comfort of their loved ones.
In case, a hospice nurse gets employed to take care of a terminally ill patient, then at times they even prefer to do some simple household chores, so that, the patient's family members get maximum time to spend with the patient. This gives the families some more time to be spent with their loved one, who is on the death bed, counting days.
On an average, a hospice nurse can earn up to $57,280 a year. Being a hospice nurse, is not a child's play. They need to have a lot of patience, need to know how to keep their cool at times of stress, need to be cheerful and pleasant, should be friendly, so that they can easily build a rapport with the patient, should be able to easily communicate with the family members in such a manner that, the family members understand what they want to convey. They need to be able to provide comfort and solace to the family members.
They should be wise enough and able to keep the stress resulting from the job, off their own personal life. Their job is really demanding and an emotional one too. A hospice nurse needs to be an epitome of incredible compassion, spirituality, patience. Also, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds is also necessary.
If you are an youngster pursuing education in CNA and are interested in taking up a job in hospice, then, try to utilize the rotation policy of your school and take up work in a hospice setting, this way you can get a feel of the typical life of a hospice CNA.
Karen Williams has worked as a CNA for several years and now runs a CNA Training information website to assist others looking to start or further their careers in the nursing industry. For more information visit: http://www.yourcnatrainingguide.com
Friday, May 7, 2010
10 Things You Should Know about Hospice Care
by Rebecca Sharp Colmer
Hospice provides support and care for persons in the last phases of incurable diseases so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life.
Here are ten things you should know about hospice care:
1. Hospice is a special approach to caring for terminally ill patients that stresses palliative care (relief of pain and uncomfortable symptoms) as opposed to curative care.
2. Most hospice care focuses on keeping the patient at home, yet there are hospices located in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies.
3. Admission to hospice is predicated on the poor prognosis of the patient. This is generally stated as "6 months or less if the disease runs its expected course."
4. There are different "auspices" of programs providing hospice care. Some of these include: an inpatient hospice unit at a hospital or nursing home, a community-based hospice, a free-standing, inpatient hospice, a home care organization that provides hospice care with specially trained home care hospice nurses and volunteers, corporations that provide hospice care, continuing care retirement community hospice programs, and other models like HMOs.
5. The hospice and palliative care team may include: patients and families, clinician, social workers, physicians, dieticians, bereavement counselors, spiritual counselors, volunteers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, home health aides, pharmacists, and others.
6. Pain and symptom management are a specialty area in hospice. Most patients receive a complement of pain solutions.
7. In addition to pain management, some of the hallmarks of hospice care include: knowledge of concepts related to death and dying, stress management skills, sensitive communication skills, a sense of humor, flexibility, and hospice and palliative care knowledge.
8. Many insurers now cover or reimburse hospice programs for hospice services.
9. Hospice team members and their clinical practice are described every day to surveyors, peers, and managers through the review of clinical records. The clinical record is a legal document.
10. Bereavement counseling is a part of the hospice organization's planned intervention program for survivors and is a key indicator of the quality of hospice services.
Today hospice has a major role in the healthcare movement. The terminally ill have options and the quality of their lives can still be within their control.
This article was written by Rebecca Sharp Colmer, a Certified Senior Advisor and the creator of MeAndMyCaregivers, a company who offers management and peace of mind over your loved one’s medical, financial and social well being. Learn more at http://www.meandmycaregivers.com
Hospice provides support and care for persons in the last phases of incurable diseases so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life.
Here are ten things you should know about hospice care:
1. Hospice is a special approach to caring for terminally ill patients that stresses palliative care (relief of pain and uncomfortable symptoms) as opposed to curative care.
2. Most hospice care focuses on keeping the patient at home, yet there are hospices located in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies.
3. Admission to hospice is predicated on the poor prognosis of the patient. This is generally stated as "6 months or less if the disease runs its expected course."
4. There are different "auspices" of programs providing hospice care. Some of these include: an inpatient hospice unit at a hospital or nursing home, a community-based hospice, a free-standing, inpatient hospice, a home care organization that provides hospice care with specially trained home care hospice nurses and volunteers, corporations that provide hospice care, continuing care retirement community hospice programs, and other models like HMOs.
5. The hospice and palliative care team may include: patients and families, clinician, social workers, physicians, dieticians, bereavement counselors, spiritual counselors, volunteers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, home health aides, pharmacists, and others.
6. Pain and symptom management are a specialty area in hospice. Most patients receive a complement of pain solutions.
7. In addition to pain management, some of the hallmarks of hospice care include: knowledge of concepts related to death and dying, stress management skills, sensitive communication skills, a sense of humor, flexibility, and hospice and palliative care knowledge.
8. Many insurers now cover or reimburse hospice programs for hospice services.
9. Hospice team members and their clinical practice are described every day to surveyors, peers, and managers through the review of clinical records. The clinical record is a legal document.
10. Bereavement counseling is a part of the hospice organization's planned intervention program for survivors and is a key indicator of the quality of hospice services.
Today hospice has a major role in the healthcare movement. The terminally ill have options and the quality of their lives can still be within their control.
This article was written by Rebecca Sharp Colmer, a Certified Senior Advisor and the creator of MeAndMyCaregivers, a company who offers management and peace of mind over your loved one’s medical, financial and social well being. Learn more at http://www.meandmycaregivers.com
Monday, May 3, 2010
Hospice Care Makes Sense
What if I told you about an organization you could call when your elderly parent became so seriously ill that it appeared unlikely she’d recover?
What if I told you that this organization would send well trained nurses to see your parent, aides to lend a hand with daily care, a social worker to help the family grapple with the emotional difficulties? That these folks would deliver equipment you might need — a hospital bed, say, or wheelchair — and all your parent’s drugs? What if they’d also send a chaplain if you wanted one? And provide a nurse to call 24/7 when you had questions or problems? And volunteers who would stay with your parent while you took a few hours’ break, even if just for a long, quiet walk?
And what if I told you all this would cost you nothing, that Medicare would pay for it all? You’d pick up the phone, right? It’s what caregivers so often yearn for and so seldom can locate: expertise, compassion, help that they can afford.
Now, what if I told you this organization was a hospice?
This quote from a New York Times blog post provides compelling arguments for why hospice care is the ideal solution to the inevitable issues that come with the end of life. Affordable, professional, and comfortable, hospice provides the attention and care that patients and their families deserve.
What if I told you that this organization would send well trained nurses to see your parent, aides to lend a hand with daily care, a social worker to help the family grapple with the emotional difficulties? That these folks would deliver equipment you might need — a hospital bed, say, or wheelchair — and all your parent’s drugs? What if they’d also send a chaplain if you wanted one? And provide a nurse to call 24/7 when you had questions or problems? And volunteers who would stay with your parent while you took a few hours’ break, even if just for a long, quiet walk?
And what if I told you all this would cost you nothing, that Medicare would pay for it all? You’d pick up the phone, right? It’s what caregivers so often yearn for and so seldom can locate: expertise, compassion, help that they can afford.
Now, what if I told you this organization was a hospice?
This quote from a New York Times blog post provides compelling arguments for why hospice care is the ideal solution to the inevitable issues that come with the end of life. Affordable, professional, and comfortable, hospice provides the attention and care that patients and their families deserve.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
What is The Journey of a Dying Patient?
by Samuel Oliver, author of, "What the Dying Teach Us: Lessons on Living"
Hospice patients come to our care after being cut, burned, and poisoned. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment are the normative methods of care for most of the patients who enter a life-threatening disease. Hospital staff members are trained to be aggressive about curative care
Hospice care is a phase of care whereby aggressive treatment is no longer appropriate. Palliative care becomes the norm. Patients have been probed physically, mentally, and emotionally. In many ways, patients may be reluctant to any type of care beyond the experiences that led to his/her doctor sharing that no more can be done.
The purpose of this article is to claim that much more can be done. Our Doctors and Nurses are trained to help patients receive medication that stabilizes and even diminishes pain and suffering physically. Social Workers are trained to help patients and families deal with emotional, practical, and legal issues surrounding loss and grief. Spiritual Counselors help with the integration of emotional well being and a sense of faith and hope beyond one's self-awareness.
The Heart of Care
The heart of care centers it's attention on the needs of the patient who is dying. Any attempt to move a patient away from his/her authentic character becomes a war of wills. As we listen and care for a person just as he/she is, we are allowing a person to die the way he/she lived. Our ability to meet a person in unconditional love will draw out the desire to be fully known by the patient. Here, we are given opportunities to meet him/her in grace and mercy.
Patients are not a disease. Patients are awakening into soul. Mary was a strong-willed person who did not want to die. She had a strong personality. She had many roles she carried out in life, and she wanted to hold on to them all. She was a mother, friend, wife, among many other roles.
About two weeks before Mary died, she shared with me that she became aware of two identities: one was her strong personality and the other was a presence of peace she could not explain. The closer Mary came to her dying, the more she could identify with wanting peace over suffering. This identity with her soul became more appealing to her than living in a body that was failing her. She was awakening into her authentic self.
The Heart of Compassion
A dying patient gives up so much in their dying that he/she is tempted to hold on to what is left in their life. Even if holding on means more pain and suffering, some patients do try to do so. As care givers, we need to be sensitive to this aspect of a patient's letting go process. A patient needs support and guidance to simply learn to move from letting go (an act of the will) to letting be (getting into harmony with one's dying). A person offering care will enter into the heart of compassion by giving a patient space to enter into this process of moving from "letting go" to "letting be."
As a person dies, their personality will give way to their soul. In the process, a heart is broken. This desire to escape a painful body and embrace peace (one's authentic-self) is complicated by the desire to remain with those he or she has loved. This built up tension creates a path one has to choose inside them that transcends individual and collective conscious awareness. In essence, this is a matter of survival for the soul. This path moves a person's soul forward.
Funeral services remind us, it is the soul of a person that draw us to face death and not the deceased body. These services serve as a symbol of transition for the loved one who has died and those reflecting on the life of the deceased. A relationship that once was created outside us and in the body of another person no longer applies. Now, relationships with the deceased are internal and completely within us creating an invisible bond forever linking our awareness to a spacial quality within us drawing those left behind deeper into soul.
An Awakened Heart
An awakened heart knows there is more to life than what appears on the surface.
Dying people lead us to this place where eternal relationships are forged into the deepest aspects of our nature. It is our nature to love and feel love. Even grief has the capacity to deepen our sense of sacredness toward those we love.
A year ago, I gave a talk for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Los Angeles, CA. I was gone about a week. When I returned, my youngest son gave me a big hug. I missed him and he missed me. I could feel him literally fill my heart with love. In a real way, my soul was touched by my son's soul. An awakened heart knows that this is the heart of relationships.
In the landscape of the soul, what matters in life IS NOT matter. When we begin to look through our eyes and not with them, we enter into a view of life from the perspective of soul. Insight, to see from within, enables us to encounter death with hope, with faith, and with love.
As we grow in our capacity to see from within, we enter into the heart of grief. This emergence into the nature of soul will sustain us through death and into life - eternal. May the Creator of us all give us strength for the journey.
Hospice patients come to our care after being cut, burned, and poisoned. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment are the normative methods of care for most of the patients who enter a life-threatening disease. Hospital staff members are trained to be aggressive about curative care
Hospice care is a phase of care whereby aggressive treatment is no longer appropriate. Palliative care becomes the norm. Patients have been probed physically, mentally, and emotionally. In many ways, patients may be reluctant to any type of care beyond the experiences that led to his/her doctor sharing that no more can be done.
The purpose of this article is to claim that much more can be done. Our Doctors and Nurses are trained to help patients receive medication that stabilizes and even diminishes pain and suffering physically. Social Workers are trained to help patients and families deal with emotional, practical, and legal issues surrounding loss and grief. Spiritual Counselors help with the integration of emotional well being and a sense of faith and hope beyond one's self-awareness.
The Heart of Care
The heart of care centers it's attention on the needs of the patient who is dying. Any attempt to move a patient away from his/her authentic character becomes a war of wills. As we listen and care for a person just as he/she is, we are allowing a person to die the way he/she lived. Our ability to meet a person in unconditional love will draw out the desire to be fully known by the patient. Here, we are given opportunities to meet him/her in grace and mercy.
Patients are not a disease. Patients are awakening into soul. Mary was a strong-willed person who did not want to die. She had a strong personality. She had many roles she carried out in life, and she wanted to hold on to them all. She was a mother, friend, wife, among many other roles.
About two weeks before Mary died, she shared with me that she became aware of two identities: one was her strong personality and the other was a presence of peace she could not explain. The closer Mary came to her dying, the more she could identify with wanting peace over suffering. This identity with her soul became more appealing to her than living in a body that was failing her. She was awakening into her authentic self.
The Heart of Compassion
A dying patient gives up so much in their dying that he/she is tempted to hold on to what is left in their life. Even if holding on means more pain and suffering, some patients do try to do so. As care givers, we need to be sensitive to this aspect of a patient's letting go process. A patient needs support and guidance to simply learn to move from letting go (an act of the will) to letting be (getting into harmony with one's dying). A person offering care will enter into the heart of compassion by giving a patient space to enter into this process of moving from "letting go" to "letting be."
As a person dies, their personality will give way to their soul. In the process, a heart is broken. This desire to escape a painful body and embrace peace (one's authentic-self) is complicated by the desire to remain with those he or she has loved. This built up tension creates a path one has to choose inside them that transcends individual and collective conscious awareness. In essence, this is a matter of survival for the soul. This path moves a person's soul forward.
Funeral services remind us, it is the soul of a person that draw us to face death and not the deceased body. These services serve as a symbol of transition for the loved one who has died and those reflecting on the life of the deceased. A relationship that once was created outside us and in the body of another person no longer applies. Now, relationships with the deceased are internal and completely within us creating an invisible bond forever linking our awareness to a spacial quality within us drawing those left behind deeper into soul.
An Awakened Heart
An awakened heart knows there is more to life than what appears on the surface.
Dying people lead us to this place where eternal relationships are forged into the deepest aspects of our nature. It is our nature to love and feel love. Even grief has the capacity to deepen our sense of sacredness toward those we love.
A year ago, I gave a talk for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Los Angeles, CA. I was gone about a week. When I returned, my youngest son gave me a big hug. I missed him and he missed me. I could feel him literally fill my heart with love. In a real way, my soul was touched by my son's soul. An awakened heart knows that this is the heart of relationships.
In the landscape of the soul, what matters in life IS NOT matter. When we begin to look through our eyes and not with them, we enter into a view of life from the perspective of soul. Insight, to see from within, enables us to encounter death with hope, with faith, and with love.
As we grow in our capacity to see from within, we enter into the heart of grief. This emergence into the nature of soul will sustain us through death and into life - eternal. May the Creator of us all give us strength for the journey.
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