Role as a Nurse

My mom recently took a PRN position with Alamance County Hospice Home. She currently works in critical care as a nurse in the hospital and is met with challenging patients who die everyday. When I asked her how could she work at hospice with all of the people there, knowing that they are going to die she responded that at work the people die and there is nothing that they can do. At hospice you go in knowing that they are going to die and your job is to keep them as comfortable as possible. Everyone dies. I guess it is better off knowing than not knowing.

This led me into the conversation about how she talks to patients about dying and how she talks to them about hospice. She told me that when she talks to someone about dying in the hospital that she doesn't dance around the subject and give them false hope. She asks them if they understand that they have exhausted all medical procedures and medicines and that there is nothing left that they can do for them. Sometimes she has to "pull the cord" on breathing machines if the patients want it . She tells them that they will quit breathing but that they have medicine so that they will not be gasping for air, just be comfortable and go without suffering. This is something that I would find extremely hard to do. It's kind of like killing someone. But not, just letting them go and not have them suffer.

When she talks to someone about going to hospice, she talks about dying again and that there is nothing left to be done, and then talks about the services that hospice offers. She tells them that without treatment they will die soon and hospice can make them comfortable, they have round the clock nurses that can take care of them and it can relieve their family from having to take care of them.

She told me that the most problems she sees in someone who is getting ready to die is that they are worried about their families and if they will be ok, financially and emotionally. Most of the patients need to hear their family say that it's ok to go and that they will be ok before they pass on. I can see this being a problem - not knowing if your kids or grand kids will be ok or if your wife will have enough money without you- major stress.

These are all issues that I will struggle with talking to patients about. I guess it takes experience, but I don't know if I'll ever get used to talking to someone about dying or their life ending. Hopefully I can gain knowledge on how to do this and get my frame of mind in a place were I can deal with death more easily.

I have attached an article on how to deal with death, something I find useful.