I am a nurse and worked in Hospice for many years and I dare say that it was the most rewarding work I have done in my long career. It takes special people to be “good” at their duties in a Hospice setting. Not everyone is qualified to work in that field. Hospice is a wonderful program. It is not about dying...it is about living...and anyone that truly knows what Hospice is all about would disagree with all the negativity on this site.
Yes, there are “bad” experiences with Hospice because there are people that work in it that do not understand the principles nor reason for Hospice in the first place. I had the honor and privilege of entering someone’s life and home at the most personal event of their entire period on this earth. I had the honor of being there to help them come to that final door in as much peace and comfort as could be given.
I resent all who imply that every Hospice is a death trap...a promotion of euthanesia....if you study Dame Saunders (England) who founded the first Hospice you will find she said there was no need for euthanesia if comfort was given and pain eliminated at the time of approaching death. I loved my work in Hospice and I will ALWAYS hold my head up proudly and say I was a Hospice nurse...and I thank God that there are those who feel identical to me.
I’m with you, FRiend!
After 5 years on a med-surg floor in a horrible hospital (with all the cost-runup games that occur there) I am now proud to be a Hospice nurse.
TO ALL YOU CONSPIRACY FREAKS HERE ON FR:
I AM a Hospice nurse. I wouldn’t do ANYTHING to hasten your death - but if you are dying and are in pain, fighting for every breath, or choking on your own saliva, I’ll fight every creature on earth to keep you as comfortable as possible for as long as God keeps you with us.
I am NOT a MURDERER! I am PRIVILEGED to take care of you in your final days/weeks of life.
Funny how adamant you are to defend doping up a dying person and hastening their death. It is one thing to ease a person’s pain. It is another to dope them up so severely that their system shuts down before it is their time to die.
I am working in a nursing home now. And in just the past few months have seen several elderly patients who are fairly thriving and active, be put on morphine and rapidly decline, within days, to a horrible death. Who is deciding it is time for these people to die? Why are they being “forced” to become terminal? Who is profiting off of this? Yes, hospice seems to be involved but it is more than that. The average lifespan of my patients after being put on morphine is only 2-3 days. We had our head nurse in meeting tell us firmly that “morphine is not killing these folks”. But I cannot deny what I have seen. We have an elderly person, who yes has some health issues, but who is surviving, living peacefully in the home. Then, someone decides they are in pain, and the patient is forced to take injections which leave them completelly debilitated, unable to get up, eat, or drink. I feel the morphine is so strong that the person is forced into a coma, and they eventually die of dehydration and cardiac shutdown. I have seen this in at least 4 patients in just the past 2 months. I feel in a way this is legalized “murder”! I am afraid to tell anyone though... I feel I would put myself at risk. This is a large business involved and I am just a nurse. They are a million $/month business.