Hospice is a special type of health care for terminally ill patients and their families. Hospice care workers are trained to provide a significant level of support and comfort to patients and their families. Hospice care is only resorted to when a life-limiting sickness fails to respond to treatments.
While hospice care doesn't elongate the patient's life or hasten death, it is designed to improve the overall quality of the patient's last days. The healthcare workers of hospice are trained to offer a specialized understanding of the necessary medical care.
How is Hospice Administered?
Hospice care is administered through a team-oriented approach of medicine. The workers are specially trained volunteers or caregivers, health care professionals, and even family members. These highly trained individuals work to address every symptom of the patient's disease with a keen eye for moderating the patients discomfort and pain.
Administering this type of health care involves a holistic approach, which includes social, emotional, and spiritual care of the patient, family, and friends. In addition to all of these services, hospice also offers a wide range of counseling and bereavement services to the family and friends both before and after the patient dies.
The Hospice Caregiver
Hospice programs administer palliative care, which is health care focusing on the holistic well-being of everyone involved, including the caregiver. Being a hospice caregiver can be an insanely demanding around-the-clock job. At the same time, being a hospice caregiver can be very rewarding.
However, as a caregiver it is important that you know how to ask for and accept assistance from others. In addition to being able to give the best possible hospice healthcare, accepting assistance allows others to have the opportunity of being of service.
Undoubtedly, care giving takes a significant time commitment. While actually knowing the amount of time required can be nearly impossible, caregivers frequently design rotation schedules with other trusted loved ones. In either case, caregivers will usually have to take a significant amount of time off of work at some period.
Where is Hospice Administered?
Generally, hospice care is provided in the patient's home, nursing home, or a friend's home where the patient is most comfortable. However, there are in-patient hospice care facilities available to assist if necessary. The entire hospice focus is on the comforting the patient, not on administering a cure for the illness.
Hospice staff is available for questions from caregivers 24 hours a day. The hospice staff is also readily available to conduct in-home visits at any time to manage any issue that may arise.