If you have ever had, or currently have, a family member in hospice, you may have interacted with a hospice nurse before. These healthcare providers can have versatile roles depending on the needs of their patient. It’s a challenging job, according to Iowa River Hospice Nurse, Jeni Mohr. Mohr sees around 14 patients per day, mainly helping them manage their …
The State of Palliative Care in the U.S.: A Progress Report
We at Kindful Hospice take our work seriously, to provide you with the best hospice and palliative care possible. In order to do that, we keep an eye on the latest research on these topics. Beyond studying the latest breakthroughs in patient care, we’re also interested in the larger picture of what palliative care looks like in the U.S. How …
Working while Grieving: 5 Coping Strategies
When you lose a loved one, it can feel like the world has shifted on its axis. You may find it difficult to contemplate returning to your daily routine, including going back to work. If your world has been disrupted by grief, you shouldn’t expect to be able to fall back into your work groove right away. The grieving process …
Making Peace with the Grieving Process
Dealing with grief can be a challenging process. If you have ever lost someone close to you, you’ll know this from experience. For friends and family members of hospice patients, grief is a part of life, one you will become acquainted with at some point, if not already. Grief can be an ongoing process even before you experience loss, especially …
3 Differences between Palliative Care and Hospice
When patients hear the terms “palliative care” and “hospice,” they may not realize there’s a difference between them. After all, these treatments can be vastly similar, since they’re both focused on patient comfort. Most people don’t want to spend significant time in the hospital, let alone die in a sterile hospital setting. Both palliative care and hospice aim to honor …
5 Facts You Should Know About Palliative Care
When Sunita Puri began her medical career, she realized her education had some significant gaps. No one had taught her how to have difficult conversations with patients or how to give a patient a serious diagnosis. Even now, the language of medical professionals often refers to illnesses in terms of “fighting” and “winning the battle” against the disease, leaving little …
3 Reasons Doctors Won’t Break Bad News
When you or your loved one received your diagnosis, did your doctor deliver the news in clear and easily understood terms? For many patients, the answer is no. While doctors almost uniformly agree that patients need clear and direct communication, they aren’t always trained to provide it. No one enjoys delivering bad news, and medical professionals are no exception. But …
What Your Doctor Wants You to Know about Palliative Care
When you hear the words, “palliative care” what do you think of? Perhaps you think of end of life care or of treatments meant to provide comfort rather than healing. Or maybe you consider palliative care a synonym for hospice care. Whether you have experience with palliative care or not, you likely have preconceived notions about it, but are those …
Patient Focused Care
As a friend or family member of a hospice patient, you may have spent considerable amounts of time in a hospital setting. You’ve seen doctors and nurses rushing through sterile hallways and heard heart monitors beeping and respirators whirring. In the midst of this often chaotic setting, the patient’s wishes can sometimes become secondary to the task of keeping them …
Improving the End of Life Experience
Most of us don’t think about death until we’re older. Those taken too soon remind us to live fuller and appreciate precious movements. A few people might buy life insurance or write letters to loved ones just in case they were to pass unexpectedly, but those preparations are meant for the ones left behind. It’s much harder to think about …