Hospice Meeting Reflection

On February 14th I spent a day doing something I never thought I would do in a million years, I went to hospice. I always thought I would hate hospice, but I actually didn’t mind it too much, it isn’t a job I see myself doing in the future but it is a job that I understand why people do it and why they enjoy it. During this observation I was touched by how much these nurses really seem to care for each of the patients that they have.

At the beginning of the day all of the nurses have a meeting to discuss the patients and the patients families. This meeting is a lot like report at the hospital, except they are discussing the patient’s family as somebody that they are there to care for as well. These nurses are available to talk to 24 hours

a day for their patients if they are struggling with something. One of the nurses that was working that day didn’t get home until 8 o’clock the night before, and was on the phone with a patient’s family member until 10 o’clock that night and was woken up by a patient’s family member calling her at 1 o’clock in the morning, and then returned to work at 8 o’clock in the morning the next day. It showed me just how much dedication to their patients and their patients loved ones, they have.
During Nursing of Elderly we learned that hospice is their for patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have six months or less to live. Every patient I seen with the nurse I was following had cancer and had only been given a few months to live when they started, so they had discontinued their treatment to fight the cancer and started treatment to help with the symptoms of their cancer, like the pain involved. The nurses for hospice are able to call the physician if they think the pain medicine is not doing the patient justice to get the prescription changed to a more adequate amount. The nurses are there to help the patient die in peace and comfort rather than to help treat an illness, like we had learned in Nursing of Elderly.
During my observation the nurse I followed would call the patients she had that day to see if they needed anything before she would leave the office. Then we went to pharmacy to get the prescriptions for the patients she had that day, and special caps to make it easier to open the pill bottle. Then we were on the road to check on the patients she had. When we got to the patients house it was like we were visiting with old friends, talking about cars and trucks, reminiscing on their olden days (like we were taught how to do in Nursing of Elderly). The patients were actually happy to see us when we got there and they joked and laughed with us as the nurse casually took vitals, checked for sores, checked up with family to see how they and the patient have been doing, and checked all the pill bottles to make sure they had enough of whatever she didn’t get at the pharmacy earlier. We didn’t just leave the patient’s house right after the nurse was done with her routine, we stayed and we talked to the family and to the patient. It truly was like we were visiting a few friends that just needed a little checking up on.
I truly enjoyed myself during this observation, even if I don’t like sitting in a car long and we drove all over to go see patients. I felt like I became an important part of the patients I had seen that day's life, and that they actually became a pretty big part of mine. The patients made me realize not all elderly people are scary and can actually be loving and kind. Those patients will hold a special place in my heart for years to come, even if I only spent a day with them. I now know that if there ever comes a time that I need hospice that there will be great people taking care of me and allowing me to pass in peace.