Hospice Care – What is It?

Do your nursing assistants know that hospice care focuses on comfort and dignity? And that it promotes the best possible quality of life for dying clients and their families? Unfortunately, not enough people (even those who work in health care) know what hospice care is all about. Because they are the “front line” workers, it is important for every CNA to understand that hospice is an available choice. Here is some basic information that you can share with your nurse aides:

What Is Hospice?

The word “hospice” comes from a Latin word that means “guesthouse”. However, in today’s world, hospice is not a location. It’s a special way of caring for terminally ill clients and their families. Hospice gives people control over their end-of-live care and keeps families together during the difficult time of losing a loved one.

In addition:

Hospice care tends to save money. hospice in westminster (It usually costs less for people to receive hospice care than for them to be in a hospital.)

• Modern hospices began in England in the 1940’s. The first hospice in the U.S. opened in 1974. Today, hospices combine the comforting power of modern medicine with the “old fashioned” support of caring hospice workers and loving families.
• The majority of hospice clients are dying from some form of cancer. Heart disease is the second most common diagnosis. However, the focus of hospice is not the disease-it’s the client and family.
• Hospice care is provided by a team of people who have chosen hospice as their specialty and who have been trained to work with dying clients. That doesn’t mean that hospice is all about grief and sadness! The main goal of hospice is to help clients live meaningful lives-with comfort and dignity-for the time that’s left them.
• The hospice team includes nursing assistants (usually called home health aides or hospice aides). In fact, aides are very important to the team, especially since they spend so much time with clients and their families.