Helping our loved ones live the best they can
When families choose hospice, they choose love, comfort, and dignity for their loved one. But knowing what great hospice service looks like can be difficult. The care that will be provided should ease fears and give families confidence during this loving journey. True hospice care should wrap around both patient and family, ensuring that no one feels alone, unsupported, or uncertain about what to expect.
Hospice Representatives
Many times, the hospice representative you meet with is a salesperson. They may even have a financial incentive for patients to be admitted to hospice. The common titles used are "Hospice Liaison," "Community Liaison," "Clinical Liaison," just to name a few. These representatives should bring love and compassion while explaining how their company provides hospice. How they discuss hospice and the care that will be provided will give insight into the company they represent. If they seem more focused on just getting you to sign paperwork, this may be an indication of the company they represent.
Nursing Care: Frequency, Consistency, and Availability
Nurses are the heart of hospice care. A great hospice ensures that:
- Regular visits: For your loved one to receive the best care, visits should be two times a week or more depending on the patient's needs, with increased visits as conditions change. Sometimes patients and families may start with one time a week to get comfortable. Two visits a week are optimal to manage symptoms, medications and to make adjustments as necessary. Great hospice nurses know and monitor their patients to keep issues that are treatable from becoming worse. For example, if a nurse observes a patient having a UTI, an antibiotic would most likely be prescribed after consultation with the doctor. This helps your loved one live the best possible without getting worse for something not related to their disease process.
- Consistency matters: Change is difficult for everyone but especially someone receiving hospice care. Consistency not only provides peace for the patient but the families as well. Having the same familiar faces who know their loved one's story and medical history allows the nurse to serve the patient better and the family to develop a trusting relationship with the nurse.
- 24/7 availability: A nurse should always be just a phone call away, no matter the time of day or night. Changes can occur at any time. You should be able to talk to someone and get the help needed to resolve the issue on the phone or if the issue cannot be resolved, a nurse should be able to make a visit in a timely manner.
CNA Support: Daily Comfort and Care
Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) provide the hands-on personal care with love, compassion and dignity. Think about how you feel after a shower and are clean. If your loved one is unable to care for themselves, that is how they feel after a CNA helps to clean and bath your loved one. This helps your loved one live the best they can. With great hospice care:
- The CNA provides personal care. This can be a bed bath, assisting the patient in the getting in and out of the shower or using a rolling chair to take your loved one in the shower. The CNA can change the patient's bed linens and clean around the patient's immediate area. This service is about what the patient and family want.
- CNA visits are scheduled consistently, often several times a week, based on the patient's needs. The visit should last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour based on the care given.
- Consistency in caregivers is a priority, so your loved one feels safe and comfortable with the same trusted helper whenever possible. The care provided by a CNA is the most intimate of care. Having the same CNA allows your loved one to become comfortable and trust the care provided.
Medications: Comfort Delivered to Your Door
Managing pain and symptoms is central to hospice care. A great hospice provides:
- All necessary medications related to the terminal diagnosis and comfort—especially for pain, anxiety, shortness of breath, and other distressing symptoms.
- Medication not related will be covered as it was prior to hospice. The hospice nurse will help to make sure these medications are ordered and prescriptions written, if needed.
- Timely home delivery, ensuring medications are available when needed, without stressful pharmacy runs. Medications should be delivered to wherever the patient lives.
Supplies and Equipment: Clean, Reliable, and On Time
Families should never worry about finding medical supplies or equipment on their own. Great hospice service ensures:
- Supplies such as gloves, incontinent products, wipes, wound dressings, and so much more is available and should be delivered as needed to care for your loved one.
- Medical equipment such as hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, and wheelchairs such arrive promptly, clean, safe, and well-maintained—never worn out or unreliable. You only have to take what you want or need knowing you can always request something else later.
Continuous Care: Support in a Crisis
When your loved one has uncontrolled symptoms such as pain, nausea and anxiety, hospice companies should provide relief with Continuous Care (CC) This is bedside care from a nurse, usually an LVN/LPN, often around the clock, until the crisis is stabilized. The care provides symptom relief for the patient and peace of mind to the family to know their loved one will not face uncontrolled symptoms alone.
General Inpatient (GIP) Care: Another Option
Not every family wants their loved one to pass away at home. Hospice companies are supposed to provide options for access to a General Inpatient Unit (GIP), where skilled nurses, these nurses are required to be RNs. This care provides around the clock for uncontrolled symptoms in a facility setting. This option allows families to choose the setting that feels right for them.
Emotional and Spiritual Support: Social Workers and Chaplains
Hospice is not only about physical comfort, but also about the heart and soul. Families can expect:
- Social workers visit regularly, usually once or twice a month, to offer emotional support, counseling, and help with resources. The social worker can also help with various items such as Do Not Resituate (DNR), Medical Power of Attorney and other documents.
- Chaplains provide spiritual care in line with your faith or beliefs, usually visiting once or twice a month or as requested.
A Final Word
Hospice care should bring peace, comfort and hope, not worry. Families deserve compassionate professionals who come consistently, respond quickly, provide clean equipment and timely supplies, and walk with them every step of the way.
When hospice is done correctly, it feels like love in action—gentle, steady, and always near.