Hospice Care
Hospice is a concept of caring borrowed from medieval times, where travelers, pilgrims and the sick, wounded or dying could find rest and comfort. The contemporary hospice offers a program of care to patients and families facing a life threatening illness encompassing medical, nursing, spiritual, and psychological care. It is more than a medical alternative - it is an attitude toward death and the process of dying. Terminal disease is managed so that patients can live comfortably until they die. The hospice program in the United States has evolved in part as an attempt to compensate for the inadequacies of the present medical system, particularly in caring for patients with a terminal illness. Hospice care has grown from an alternative health care movement to an established component of the American health care system. The modern hospice movement began in 1967 when Cicely Saunders opened St. Christopher's Hospice in London. In the late 1960's, several Yale University students invited Dr. Saunders to come speak at Yale. These students were inspired to open a similar place in the United States. They opened the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut and pioneered the hospice movement in the United States. This became t
But what is hospice care? In an attempt to answer, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement in 1990 about the philosophy and techniques of hospice care. A ninth issue important to the hospice concept is the different types of hospice care. Although individual programs may vary, there are at least five distinguishable types of hospice programs in the United States: the free-standing hospice that provides inpatient service along with home care, the home-health agency hospice, a hospice unit within a hospital, the roving hospice team working with dying patients wherever they are located, and the hospice program with hospital and medical school affiliation. The research regarding hospice that currently exists is adequate. A journal devoted to this subject has been published since 1985. A search for journal articles containing the keyword "hospice" will generate results in the hundreds. One problem that exists is the type of research. The majority of this research consists of case studies, surveys and interviews; there is very little experimental research. Of course, the subject being examined does not lend itself well to this kind of research. There are numerous moral and ethical problems that arise when dealing with dying patients. A researcher would be very unlikely to find financial backing for a study that assigned hospice patients, families or workers to different conditions. Therefore, research must be limited to less intrusive and manipulative kinds. · Hospice offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and during the bereavement process.
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Approximate Word count = 4687
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)
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