Deciding to begin hospice care can be a big step for a patient and their family to make. It signals a big change, but also means that the patient will be getting the end-of-life care they require and deserve.
With that in mind, it’s incredibly beneficial that a patient in need of hospice care starts as soon as possible.
If you’re still wondering about specifics, we put together this article on how an early start to hospice can help patients.
Read MoreA DNR is a legal document that says that a patient does not wish to be resuscitated in the case of an emergency. Examples of said emergency may be cardiac or respiratory arrest. In addition to the patient’s consent, it must be signed by a physician.
Read MoreWhy Choose Home Care for your Loved Ones?
Understandably, many patients and their families would prefer home care to staying in a facility.
While home care means a lack of nursing staff and medical equipment, there are a number of benefits to the patient.
In the article below, we’ll run down some of the more important benefits that home care can provide to your loved one.
Read MoreEnd-stage COPD can be a difficult condition for patients and their families to deal with. COPD stands for “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” and results in patients having a variety of breathing problems.
Thankfully, hospice care can be useful in helping patients deal with their COPD in their end-of-life stage.
Read MoreConsidering it’s Pain Awareness Month, it’s a great time to discuss the ways in which hospice care can help patients with chronic pain issues.
Chronic pain is one of the most common ailments and can become much worse if allowed to go untreated.
That’s why one of the primary purposes of hospice care is to pinpoint the nature of the pain and then to prescribe a treatment plan specific to each individual patient.
Read MoreOne of the primary challenges of providing hospice care is personalizing the treatment to each individual patient.
Oftentimes, this takes the form of being in tune with a patient’s culture, which may be different than the caretaker’s.
Gaining an understanding of a patient’s culture is absolutely necessary to ensure that the patient is satisfied with their care.
To help you understand how best to be culturally aware with patients, we’ve assembled some helpful tips.
Read MoreNobody wants to think about getting sick or being unable to take care of yourself.
But as you get older, these things become more and more of a possibility, and it’s better to plan for them than to pretend they’ll never happen and be blindsided when they do.
That’s where advanced care planning comes in.
It’s a way of mapping out your preferred medical treatment ahead of time, just in case there’s a scenario where you’re unable to make decisions on your own.
If you’d like to learn more about advanced care planning and how to best approach it, we’ve gathered some of the most important information below.
Read MoreHospice nursing is unique among nursing positions, due to it taking place during the final weeks of the patient’s life.
While this may seem an emotionally difficult task for some, it can be highly rewarding for others.
If being a hospice nurse is for you, you’re probably wondering how to break in. As with any job, getting your foot in the door can be the hardest part.
For this reason, we’ve gathered some helpful tips that can guide your way to becoming a hospice nurse.
Read MoreBy definition, hospice care is designed for patients who have been diagnosed by a doctor to have six months or less to live.
In situations such as these, it’s important for the patient and his or her loved ones to communicate with the hospice provider any end-of-wishes.
Since these decisions can be difficult, here are five things you’ll want to keep in mind to help the discussion go as smoothly as possible.
Read MoreIn order to for hospice care to provide the most highly personalized treatment for a patient, it’s necessary to have goals-of-care discussions.
Through these discussions, the hospice provider will be able to gain a deep understanding of the patient’s situation and how best to care for them. As time goes on, these conversations will often change depending on the state of the patient.
When having these discussions, here are the top four subjects you’ll want to cover.
Read MoreReaching the end-of-life process can be a struggle, not just for the patient, but for their family and friends, as well.
There’s a lot of information to take in and not a lot of time to make decisions.
One unique aspect of hospice care that’s helpful to understand is that there are four unique levels, each of which provides its own services. In order to make the most informed decisions for your loved one, here’s what you need to know about the four levels of hospice care.
Read MoreIf your loved one is experiencing the final stages of a terminal illness, you’re probably wondering what to do next. You’ve done the research and listened to the experts, but the sense of uncertainty won’t go away.
After all, there’s a lot of information out there and it can be difficult to make sense of it all.
In order to make things a little easier, we’ve gathered together a summary of what you can expect from hospice care and how it can benefit your loved one.
Read MoreSeeking out hospice care for a loved one can be a stressful process. The last thing you need to worry about is money, but money is often the first thing you worry about.
It’s an understandable concern, and one that we can help you better understand.
Here’s everything you need to know about the many ways that hospice care can be paid for.
Read MoreFor terminally ill patients seeking physical and psychological comfort in their final years, hospice care is the best option. For patients that still have an expectation to recover and merely need daily help in living their lives, palliative care is likely what you’re looking for.
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