Hospice Essay Sample

Community Services Workshop Paper

The term “hospice” comes from the same linguistic root as “hospitality” and can be traced back to medieval times when it was referred to as a place of shelter and rest for sick travelers on a long journey. The name was first applied to specific care for dying patients by a physician Dame Cicely Saunders, who began her work with the terminally ill in 1948 and then eventually went on to create the first modern hospice, “St. Christopher’s Hospice”, located in a residential suburb of London (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 2016). Before the 1970’s, the doctors were the ones who ultimately called the shots for patient care and made final decisions. Saunders introduced the idea of “specialized care” for the dying to the United States during a visit with Yale University in 1963. Her lecture was given to medical students, nurses, social workers, and chaplains about the idea of holistic hospice care. She included photos of terminally ill cancer patients and their families, showing the dramatic differences before and

Hospice of North Coast offers interdisciplinary healthcare where their emphasis is on dignity, comfort, control and preventing and reducing suffering for patients in the last stages of a terminal illness. Their mission is “to provide compassionate personalized care to patients and families during the end-of-life transition”. Their services are needed and utilized when curative treatments are no longer desired. When patients are admitted under hospice care, there is an interdisciplinary team that works together to bring as much comfort and peace to not just the patients, but also the family members. The team consists of the patient, the primary care physician, hospice medical director, the patient’s family, registered nurses, social workers, spiritual care team, home health aides, volunteers, and bereavement