IF you are a member of Hospice, would you share some of your thoughts about it and why you enlisted/trained .?

Question

I am handicapped and wish I could do that. We have nearby Hospices in various towns and everything I read about it is awesome.Just want a first hand imput on a hands-on level. Thank you and what a blessing each one ofyou are to the families and the dying.

Answer 1

I am an RN who works with the elderly and so I work closely with Hospice. I have been thru deaths of 41 year olds of Lung CA, 50 year olds with Breast CA and of course the elderly with the vast array of illness's they host. I love Hospice. Most people sign up to late thinking I don't need this just yet. When they do sign up they usually say why didn't I sign up earlier. Hospice helps both the patient and the family learn about dying and how to live while dying. It prepares everyone to recongnize signs of downward changes and gives approximate time ranges of this part of the illness. Hospice greatly helps with pain control. As the person nears death, the natural instinct of the body is to try to live. The breathing and heart rate speed up trying to get those last ditch efforts to live. Most familys find this stage very difficult to watch. Using medications available thru hospice this part of the transition over to the other side can be eased for both the patient and family.

All along the journey Hospice provides quilified Nurses, Aides, Ministers, social workers and volunteers to make things easier. Sometimes you (family member) just needs to get out of the house and do SOMETHING besides deal with illness. Hospice can provide someone to stay with the paient.

My father is 86 and is showing signs of the end of his journey, I have already got my family talking about Hospice. Gentle start so they can have time to think before it gets to late.

I certainly hope your Hospice experience has been as good as the ones in my area. Even though you are handicapped there are still many things you can do with Hospice. Just call around and offer your services and I am sure someone will be able to juse you.

Answer 2

The hospice team are some beautiful people and I would recommend them to all as they helped me so well with my mother when I had no-one else not even family to help at her end time. They helped my mother so much in her end stage illness until my mother liked all of them that was there for her. My input is that people with beautiful personality and plenty of love can try working for hospice to care for others that truly needs love at the time of their illness.