What is Hospice?
History
The term “hospice,” interestingly from the same linguistic root as “hospitality,” can be traced back to medieval times. However, during this time period the term referred to a place of shelter and respite for weary or ill travelers. Subsequently, the name was first applied to specialized care for dying patients in 1967 by physician Dame Cicely Saunders. In fact, Dame Saunders is the person who founded the first modern hospice, St. Christopher’s Hospice, in London.
Development of Hospice
Saunders was paramount in terms of the development of hospice. In particular, Saunders introduced the idea of a very specialized and innovative type of care for the dying to the United States during a 1963 visit with Yale University. She gave a lecture to medical students, nurses, social workers, and chaplains about the concept of holistic hospice care. Saunders very prudently, included photos of terminally ill cancer patients and their families; the photos illustrated the dramatic differences before and after the symptom control care. This very lecture launched a chain of events, which resulted in the development of hospice care as we know it today.
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What is Hospice - Hospice Today
Alert and Pain Free Life
Today, hospice care provides humane and compassionate care for people in the last phases of an incurable disease so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible. In essence, the hospice perspective accepts death as the final stage of life. Therefore, the primary goal of hospice is to enable patients to continue an alert and pain-free life. Additionally, hospice care strives to manage other symptoms as well so that the patient’s last days may be spent with dignity and quality, surrounded by their loved ones.
Affirmation of Life
It is important to note, hospice does not hasten or postpone death. It does however operate from a special perspective—the affirmation of life. Fundamentally, it focuses on quality rather than length of life; and treating the person rather than the disease. Also, it is equally important to mention that hospice provides family-centered care. In essence, hospice considers both the patient, as well as the family regarding decisions.
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What is Hospice - Early Treatment
Quality of Life
Hospice care is suitable when a patient no longer benefits from treatment and is expected to live 6 months or less. It is important to note that a life expectancy is never “by the book”. Some patients with a life expectancy of six months will live much longer and some will die much sooner than expected. It is generally accepted that the sooner a patient can access hospice services, the more they will benefit from the care received. Hospice gives you palliative care, which is treatment to help relieve symptoms, but not cure the disease; its main purpose is to improve quality of life. The patient, family, and doctor decide when hospice care should begin.
Early Treatment
Unfortunately, too often, hospice is not started soon enough. In fact, sometimes the doctor, patient, or family member will resist hospice because he or she feels it sends a message of no hope. Quite frankly, this simply is not true. If the patient gets better or the disease goes into remission, the patient can be taken out of the hospice care at a later time. The hope that hospice brings is the hope of a quality life, making the best of each day during the last stages of advanced illness.
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History of Hospice