Preview

Hospice Care in the United States

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4545 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hospice Care in the United States
Hospice is a concept of caring borrowed from medieval times, where travelers, pilgrims and the sick, wounded or dying could find rest and comfort. The contemporary hospice offers a program of care to patients and families facing a life threatening illness encompassing medical, nursing, spiritual, and psychological care. It is more than a medical alternative, it is an attitude toward death and the process of dying. Terminal disease is managed so patients can live comfortably until they die. The hospice program in the United States has evolved in part as an attempt to compensate for the inadequacies of the present medical system, particularly in caring for patients with a terminal illness. Hospice care has grown from an alternative health care movement to an established component of the American health care system. The modern hospice movement began in 1967 when Cicely Saunders opened St. Christopher's Hospice in London England. In the late 1960's, several Yale University students invited Dr. Saunders to come speak at Yale. These students were inspired to create a similar service in the United States. They opened the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut and pioneered the hospice movement in the United States. This became the nation's first specially designed hospice care center. What is Hospice care? In an attempt to answer, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement in 1990 about the philosophy and techniques of hospice care.
A. Hospice affirms life and regards dying as a normal process.
B. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death.
C. Hospice provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms associated with dying.
D. Hospice combines aspects of psychosocial and spiritual care.
E Hospice offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death.
F. Hospice offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and during the bereavement process.
We can see that the hospice

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Essay On Palliative Care

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Due to misinformation many feel that choosing palliative care treatment is giving up. This is often caused by the lack of knowledge and understanding of palliative care versus hospice. You don’t have to be at the end of life to receive palliative care; palliative care is treatment for the whole-person to relieve symptoms caused by a serious disease or disorder, durable or not. Hospice is a specific type of palliative care for people who likely have six-months or less to live. Hospice care is always palliative, but not all palliative care is considered hospice care. Palliative care does not always end when the patient passes away. Family members may need support as they grieve the loss of a loved one. There are often many stresses and strains that accompany the management of family issues once a loved one has passed. Bereavement programs are often offered as part of the comprehensive palliative care…

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Palliative Care Essay

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Often confused with palliative care is hospice care. Hospice, or end-of-life care, is designed to provide comfort and quality of life during a person's final six months. Because the main purpose of hospice care is to provide comfort, palliative care is a major component of hospice services, however…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nurse Practitioner Model

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Hospice can be described as a philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient’s symptoms while providing emotional and spiritual support for them and their family (Meirer, McCormick, & Lagman, 2015). The hospice model of care focuses on improving quality of life rather than prolonging it, and holistically embraces the principles of dying with comfort and dignity. This model uses an interdisciplinary team to develop an individualized plan of care that addresses all aspects of care and is based on the patient’s goals and cultural values (Meirer, McCormick, & Lagman,…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The term hospice refers to a cluster of comprehensive services for the terminally ill with a medically determined life expectancy of 6 months or less. Hospice care provides: meeting the patient’s physical needs, with an emphasis on pain management and comfort, emotional and spiritual needs, support for the family members before and after the patient’s death and focuses on maintaining the quality of life rather than prolonging life.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When asked how the interviewees became involved in their respective Hospice agency is as advocates a few different responses were provided. Three of the five interviewees initially encountered Hospice through the illness and death of their close loved ones, which influenced them to pursue careers working within Hospice agencies. Tony wanted to help Hospice patients and their families the way her father and family were helped by Hospice nurses through the last few months of her father’s life. Leann’s grandmother was in the care of Hospice during her last month of life, and Leann was deeply impacted by the…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Palliative Care

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Palliative care for a dying patient needs to be well planned and managed to ensure that all aspects of care giving are taken care of. The plan provides a reference for nurses and other practitioners who are involved in giving care to the patient. This is so as to ensure that they all know what needs to be done and does not. The plan also includes the relatives or family of the patient who need to be involved in the process not only to give emotional support but also physical support to the patient. However, this is just a plan and the nurse’s actions are independent and governed by the scope of practice of the state and specific country as well as the comfort levels of the nurse. The common management needs for a dying patient are comfort,…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The complete Hospice Team; Social worker, CNA, Pastoral Care, Bereavement Services, RN/ Case Manager and Volunteers will all work together to achieve this goal by beginning teaching at time of admission. The Hospice team will all work together in order to make sure that the patient will die comfortably in their home with their family by their side and will do this without returning to the hospital. .We will provide the family with all of the information and support they will need in order to feel comfortable in keeping their loved one at home without returning them to the hospital. They will have access to a nurse 24 hours a day/7 days a week through our Triage line and will be reminded at each visit to use this form of communication in order to prevent re-hospitalization.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hat2 Task 1

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Future needs for care provision due to terminal prognosis. |Terminal condition with expected physical deterioration|Patient to provide self care safely with minimal assistance. Patient to assist with self care when condition initially begins to deteriorate and continue as long as she is able.Provisions to be in place for patient’s personal care when patient is no longer able to assist. |Physical therapy to assist patient with strengthening to increase activity tolerance. Occupational therapy to teach adaptive methods of providing personal care to patient and family. Occupational therapy to evaluate home environment for safety hazards and assess for need for adaptive equipment. Psychological needs to be addressed by pastoral care, social worker and psychiatrist to improve emotional status and extend amount of time patient able to remain independent. Hospice to provide nursing assistant as condition progresses to help with ADL’s. Nurse to teach family how to assist patient with activities of daily living as needed. Respite care to be provided by hospice agency to prevent caregivers from being overwhelmed physically and emotionally.…

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hospice is a special healthcare option for patients and families faced with a terminal illness. At Hospice there’s a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses social workers, bereavement counselors and volunteers that work together to address the physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs of each patient and family members (“Hospice”). The main focus of Hospice is to address the issues that are most important to the patients’ needs or wants at the end of his/her life. The term “Hospice” comes from medieval times when it referred to a place of shelter and rest for weary or ill travelers on a long journey (Hospice). The name was first applied to specialized care for dying patients by Physician Dame Cicely Saunders, who began her work with the terminally ill in 1948 and eventually went on to create the first modern hospice—St. Christopher’s Hospice—in a residential suburb of London (National). Her lecture, given to medical students, nurses, social workers, and chaplains about the concept of holistic hospice care, included photos of terminally ill cancer patients and their families, showing the dramatic differences before and after the symptom control care. This later resulted in the development of hospice care as you know it today (National).…

    • 1939 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Hospice Care

    • 2210 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The hospice program was pioneered in England back in the early 1970’s. It was a program established to assist patients and their families with end-of-life care. A hospice care team is comprised of nursing assistants, licensed vocational nurses, registered nurses, social workers, pastoral counselors, and many other health professionals. All of whom are under the direct management and guidance of a physician. The first hospice program to surface in the United States was in Connecticut back in 1973. After hospice took root in the United States in the 70’s, around the early 80’s hospice became an added benefit to the United States Medicare program. Because cancer was so prevalent in the 70’s and 80’s, “hospice care was initially designed for people who were dying of cancer, and who had a functional family support system and a home where they…

    • 2210 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Journal of the American Medical Association defines hospice care as end-of-life support provided by healthcare professionals, friends, family and volunteers. Hospice recognizes dying as a normal process, whether or not it results from disease. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death, hospice exists in the hope and belief that, through appropriate care and the promotion of a caring, sensitive community, patients and their families may be free to attain some degree of mental and spiritual preparation for death that is comfortable to them. The goal is to make the medical and emotional process of dying as peaceful and comfortable as possible, by supplying both the patient and the family with spiritual and psychological support.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Caring for Mrs. Thomas

    • 3510 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Caring for patients who are dying presents a unique challenge for nurses. Common to all nursing is the necessity for self reflection and assessment of personal biases that can influence care delivery. In the case of the terminal patient, especially one with as many ancillary problems as Mrs. Thomas, the North American tendency towards individualism and denial of death complicates the nurse’s role. Nurses must examine their attitudes towards death and dying, and confront personal losses as well as fears in order to be present for the terminal patient. Further, having a “good death” can be subject to interpretation and determining what a patient wants needs to be the guiding principle in culturally competent end of life healthcare. What a nurse believes constitutes appropriate care or behavior of the dying patient is less important than what the patient wants, so awareness of personal feelings and biases is crucial to being of real support to the dying client. The community health nurse who is unable to speak to the issues faced by patients and families because of unresolved or unrecognized personal fears and issues, will not be able to intervene and help Mrs. Thomas and her family to confront and successfully cope with the reality of her situation.…

    • 3510 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Access To Respite Care

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A team of health care professionals and volunteers provide it. Once a person has been considered to be hospice they have been diagnosed, and expected to live 6 months or less and can take place at home, a hospice center, a hospital or a skilled nursing facility. They give medical, psychological, and spiritual support. The goal of the care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort, and dignity. The goal of the care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort and dignity. The caregivers try to control pain and other symptoms so a person can remain as alert and comfortable as possible. Hospice programs also provide services to support a patient’s family”…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    However this emotional support has been underestimated, as an example, clinical pathways are applied across the world in the past 10 years (Phillips et al., 2011), although they are widely implemented, they do not include emotional or psychosocial support. In order to improve the care of the terminal ill person is important to provide all the necessary elements to establish a better relationship between nurses and patients, fundamental aspects are communication, knowledge, and…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joliet Area Community Hospice’s (JACH) mission is to provide the best care to both the patients that are terminally ill and their families no matter the economic statues or situations of the persons involved. The JACH does list their basic admission criteria for terminally ill patients. Basic admission criteria are listed as a terminal illness that has a 6 month or less prognosis as long as the disease takes the prospected course. There are admission criteria for neurological disease such as end stage Alzheimer’s and end stage Dementia.…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays