Walking into a room witnessing a person a human life struggling for air, legs and arms sporadically flailing about, with sweat covering the brow as they are fighting the fever that comes with the end of life. It is a devastating thing to witness, as a nurse you want to step in to do the right thing. Desperate to provide comfort to someone you loving cared for years. Knowing you need Morphine and Ativan and yet nothing is available in the cart. The horror drawn across the families face as they look to you for answers and relief of their loved one's suffering. Yet you can do nothing as a nurse as once again the system has let someone down. Hospice is truly a hidden benefit in healthcare, many healthcare workers are lacking the proper education as to the services provided, who should be receiving services, and when services should be initiated for the patient. Families, in turn, are also undereducated as to their rights to protect their family member and allowing for a peaceful beautiful passing.
Even after graduating nursing school I had very little understanding of what hospice services actually entailed. There is simply little to no training in place regarding the proper avenue one should take when accessing someone for hospice. Many
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The majority 42.5% died in a skilled facility without proper services in place for not only them but for the family as well. Many families would love to be able to bring home their loved one and manage their care at home with the assistance of home care nursing. However, with a price tag of 6000 dollars a month according to Armour a substantial amount of families are not able to afford such costs and often settle for the skilled nursing facility as this is a more attractive financially. Unfortunately due to the financial ruin of our healthcare system at this time a reform of the policies is unlikely to take place as medicare is seeking to cut benefits not add to