Christian Medical Pros: Hospice May Provide Better Final Care for Aged
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
July 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - A new study shows that hospice is often a better option for the elderly than nursing homes. A number of Christian medical and healthcare professionals agree and say that many people simply fail to realize the benefits of hospice care.In a study conducted at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Dr. David Casarett found that after talking with elderly hospice patients about the quality of their care, their families reported the patients were much happier with the care they receive in hospice than if they were to be placed in a nursing home. These patients were also found to spend fewer days in the hospital and have fewer admissions. The researchers, who were looking into the problem of under-utilization of hospice care, concluded that open and straight conversation about hospice improves the likelihood that patients will experience better end of life care.
Other research has been done that tends to support this conclusion. In one study, reported last year in the in the January 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers asked families to rate the care deceased loved ones received from their last provider. Over 70% of those responding said they considered home hospice services excellent, while less than 50% gave nursing homes or home health services the same rating. Nevertheless, many families choosing final care for an elderly parent or other family member tend to shy away from the hospice option.
Dr. Jeff Allerton, a spokesman for the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, suspects this reticence may have to do with the fact that a lot of people harbor misconceptions about hospice care. One common misconception, he notes, is that a person who chooses to go into hospice is giving up on life. But Allerton, a physician certified in hospice and palliative care, explains that that need not be the case. He says those healthcare professionals who work in this field are focused on improving patients' lives, not managing their deaths. "What we're doing is using our medical knowledge to help improve their quality [of life] for what time they may have left," he says. For the hospice care provider, he adds, "the goal now has shifted from prolonging life, when you think of numbers, to actually enhancing life."
Tina Rettig, a hospice nurse in Ohio, points out that hospice care involves not only physical care-taking, but also emotional and often spiritual care-taking as well. She says Medicare requires hospice organizations to retain a chaplain or other similar position on staff.
Rettig says this is one way hospice seeks to provide for a patient's complete well-being in a way that is often much more personal than a typical nursing home's care. A chaplain or other hospice worker will frequently offer relational solace by "getting to know families and patients," who then "become comfortable asking questions," she says.
"And those questions oftentimes turn to one of a spiritual nature," the hospice care provider continues. "That gives a nurse or the chaplain opportunities to talk with them -- especially if they have a relationship with the Lord. It opens up many spiritual conversations."
Very often, Rettig says, these kinds of conversations help alleviate patients' fears about the dying experience even as they give comfort to the family. Hence, she notes, hospice doctors, nurses, chaplains, and other staff help both to enhance patients' quality of life and to ease their transition from life for them as well as for their families.
