Living with dying
Living with dying Nurses enter into hospice and palliative care practice for our own special and individual reasons. Some of us have experienced our own losses and hope to make…
Documenting care
Documenting care Proper nursing documentation provides a record of your nursing care. Detailed standards have been developed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) to guide the…
Issues in acute care settings
Issues in acute care settings Usually, the topic of end-of-life care brings to mind a patient dying relatively slowly, either in his home or in a hospital, residential facility, or…
Bereavement care
Bereavement care It’s the responsibility of helping professions such as physicians, nurses, and related professionals to provide care not only to dying patients but to bereaved survivors. (See Nursing responsibilities…
When death nears
When death nears Regardless of the setting in which a patient’s death occurs, your main goal as death approaches is to normalize the process for the patient and the family,…
Support systems
Support systems When time and preparation allow, perhaps the most potent source of support for dying patients and their families is the hospice system, which provides multidimensional support services during…
Family and caregiver care
Family and caregiver care End-of-life care is a process that involves not only the patient, but also the family and significant others. Commonly, the patient’s loved ones provide most of…
Care of a dying child
Care of a dying child Like adults, children are eligible for all types of hospice care: routine, inpatient, continuous, and respite. Almost always, children receive hospice care at home or…
Patients with renal disease
Patients with renal disease End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is the term used to describe a degree of chronic renal failure that, without dialysis or kidney transplantation, would end the patient’s…
Patients with pulmonary disease
Patients with pulmonary disease The pulmonary disorders most likely to lead to end-of-life care — other than lung cancer, which is addressed in Chapter 8 — are chronic obstructive pulmonary…
