In addition to independence and mobility, stroke patients may also experience loss of memory, speech, or thought processes. These losses can lead to the patient feeling helpless and useless. A clearer understanding of loss will assist nurses to develop better interventions to help patients and their families cope with loss. Definitions A review of literature on loss revealed many definitions and uses. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines loss as “(a) the fact or process of losing something or someone, (b) an amount of money lost by a business or organization, (c) the state or feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value, and (d) a person or thing that is badly missed when lost” (OED, 2013).
From a patients perspective : Since this hospice provides care for those that are in their last days of living from terminally ill diseases. Their objective is to enable their patients to “die with dignity”. While at the Hospice patients are going to through many emotions like stress and anxiety. The patients are told what is happening at every stage of their care. The hospice provides patients with the treatment and care they specifically need.
Anticipatory grief | Anticipatory grief refers to a grief reaction that occurs before an impending loss. Typically, the impending loss is a death of someone close due to illness but it can also be experienced by dying individuals themselves. [1] The anticipated death can also be from non-illness-related causes such as high suicide lethality, high-risk lifestyle or gang involvement, or from non-death-related losses such as scheduled mastectomy, pending divorce, company downsizing or war. The five stages (denial, bargaining, depression, anger and acceptance) proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her model of grief to describe the process by which people cope after a loss can also be present in anticipatory grief. Anxiety, dread, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, and feeling overwhelmed are also common.
It also reduces any anxiety that the family members may be feeling if the patient has their wishes laid out for them to follow. Many elderly patients prefer to die at home and should be given the option to do so. Hospice care can assist these families with caring for their loved ones. During this time, when the treatments for a person’s disease may stop, the care the individual needs will continue. The primary concern is to ensure that the patient is as comfortable as possible and that any emotional and psychological needs are being addressed.
Sometimes in most cases a particular family member is trained by nurses to provide hands on care, and to supervise the patient around the clock. Many patients in hospice have been discharge to either home or nursing home if the disease goes into remission meaning if the cancer(s) somehow have subsides. Hospice was not designed to end hope for the patient or their family but to make the expected/unexpected death as comfortable and peaceful as possible. Hospice is not only for the elderly and cancer patients but it is for the young, the chronically ill. Hospice has a huge impact on our health care system the life expectancy is increasing tremendously. This is statement released by a group of physicians who did a research study on hospice.
Medical Professional Issues Death and Dying As a health care provider it is important to recognize the five different stages of grief in the death and dying process in order to provide help and support to patients and their families. The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Each person facing the death and dying process may not experience every stage, the stages may come and go in any order and often many stages happen simultaneously. The first stage of grief is usally denial that one is facing death. As a health care provider we must remind ourselves that denial is a normal defense mechanism and that over time patients and family members eventually come around to acceptance.
The time the nurses and doctors spend with this patient could be spent with other patients. The anguish of watching a family member dye would be lessened and the family could all say their goodbyes. Most important is the dignity of the patient. The family and friends do not have to see their loved one become frail and
Groups that have a higher risk of becoming vulnerable include, children, people with learning and physical disabilities, people suffering with mental health problems, chronically ill people and the elderly. Age concern (1986) defines vulnerability in the elderly as ‘people in need of some support, help and/or advice in order to prevent personal or social deterioration or breakdown. Without this their level of dependency on others or their ability to manage their lives as they wish, might deteriorate to the point of necessitating their removal to institutional care, which is not their preferred option and might otherwise be prevented or postponed (page 11).’ This statement is proven in my clinical experience. Whilst on placement on a busy acute medical ward, at a local hospital, I helped to care for an elderly lady, whom I shall refer to as Mrs Berry. Mrs Berry was 87 and had been admitted to hospital following a fall
What are the requirements for and barriers to hospice service? It can be hard on any family when they learn that a loved one is ill, but it can be especially difficult to learn that their loved one is terminally ill. (A terminal person is defined as person who is expected to live six months or less.) Upon finding out that, a loved one is terminally ill, a decision would need to be made on the treatment of the end-of- life care they would need. The most common treatment available is hospice. Hospice is a program that provides the patient with medical services and both the patient and their family with emotional support and spiritual resources.
The experience of high levels of grief in caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. Death Studies, 32(6), 495-523. Worden, J. W. (2009). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner. springer publishing