Trust and understanding are key to every patient’s relationship with their medical team. It is especially important, however, for patients in hospice care and their families. Strong, compassionate relationships with staff and medical teams are core to hospice care for patients.
Hospice teams provide not only medical treatment, but also emotional, psychological, and spiritual support. Therefore, building these relationships is not only beneficial for patients, but also for their families and staff. Building that trust hinges on enhanced communication, endless compassion, and extensive support.
Why trust is important
Entering hospice care can be a scary proposition. Caregivers and patients need to know they are in caring and capable hands. This helps reduce the emotional impact of the hospice experience. Having trust between staff and patients and caregivers ensures that treatment plans are followed, so symptoms can be managed, and quality of life improves.
Once trust is established, everyone feels more comfortable communicating needs, issues, and concerns. This allows the staff to be more involved and create more personalized and effective care. The focus should be on making sure everyone is understood so the end-of-life journey can be as loving as possible.
Comprehensive Hospice Care for Patients
What does all this mean for patients in practice? It means a holistic approach to care that understands the physical and emotional toll a terminal diagnosis can have on a patient and their loved ones. Hospice care treats the whole person, with a focus on improving the quality of life that remains, rather than trying to cure the disease. Below are just a few of the ways hospice can listen to and support a patient’s needs.
Pain management
The hospice concept affirms life; it does not hasten or postpone death. The goal is to manage a patient’s pain and symptoms so that they may live each day as comfortably and fully as possible. Doctors and hospice nurses work with a patient’s existing doctors at the start of hospice care to understand symptoms and set a plan for how best to mitigate pain. They then continuously monitor the patient for changes and adjust accordingly so the pain doesn’t interfere with the patient’s quality of life in the end-of-life stages.
Digestive issues
Often patients with issues like ALS, cancer, or Parkinson’s have difficulty swallowing food or medications, or difficulty with digestion. This is called dysphagia. Hospice teams have speech pathologists and other experts who understand different types of dysphagia, and how to treat them.
Once these clinicians are able to study the patient and understand the issues at hand, they can offer options to the doctor and nurses to better address problems with eating and taking medications. They will determine if a thickening agent is needed to prevent choking, or if food must be pureed or liquid medications prioritized. This helps the entire hospice team plan, or adjust, a course of action for the patient that best benefits them and the treatments recommended.
Spiritual and emotional support
Medical assistance such as pain management and digestive support are important aspects of hospice care. Just as important, however, is spiritual and emotional support. Confronting a terminal diagnosis can be an emotionally challenging experience. Having compassionate, experienced staff that can create a non-judgemental and understanding environment is crucial. They also need to be sensitive to any cultural differences that may be encountered.
As patients build relationships in hospice and gain trust in their care team, they will feel more comfortable expressing fear and honest emotions more readily. This emotional support helps patients cope more effectively. Plus, the presence of spiritual leaders allows patients to work through concerns about their final days, and what may come next. This can also be important for caregivers and the patient’s loved ones.
Support for caregivers
Another important element that builds strong relationships between patients and hospice care teams is a strong support system for caregivers. The more support caregivers receive, the better they will be able to support the patient. If the patient sees their caregiver being supported by the team, the more trust they will gain in the team.
This is why hospice care builds in support for caregivers throughout the entire end-of-life journey. Below are just a few days hospice supports caregivers.
Respite care
Taking care of a loved one on hospice can be a full-time job and emotionally taxing. Because of this it is important for caregivers to take breaks whenever they’re able. The Medicare hospice benefit includes “respite care” for patients when a caregiver needs a break. Many hospices have volunteers that can sit with a loved one while a caregiver attends to errands, takes a rest, or anything else they might need to recharge for a short period. If the caregiver needs a longer break, the patient can be transferred to a contracted facility for up to 5 days so the caregiver can truly recover and return to caregiving duties.
This takes a lot of trust on behalf of the caregiver. Trusting that the team will be there for the patient in their absence takes a lot. If the team has built that trust, then the less stress the caregiver feels. The more rested and focused a caregiver is, the better they will be in supporting their loved one in hospice.
Emotional support
As mentioned previously, hospice provides important emotional support for patients. This support also extends to caregivers and family members. Staff who purposefully engage with families and caregivers can offer guidance and resources to assist them with emotional well-being. Generating trust between hospice teams and caregivers allows caregivers to grieve and communicate that grief.
Making sure everyone feels supported and understood is always in the best interest of the patient. If staff, caregivers, and the patient all feel like their concerns are heard and they can trust each other, there is no reason the hospice journey should be anything but caring, compassionate, and full of love.
