Print Article 11/17/2014
In recognition of National Hospice & Palliative Care Month, The Daily Newsshared a story on Hospice care focusing on quality of life. Reporter April Feagley interviewed Home Nursing Agency's Huntingdon Hospice team to find out how the care helps patients and their families.
Hospice care focuses on quality of life
Home Nursing Agency Hospice nurse Beth Smith, RN, provides in-home medical care to Mary Rose of Walker Township as part of the services offered through hospice. Photo by APRIL FEAGLEY
November is National Hospice Palliative Care Month, aimed at educating the public on discussing difficult end of life issues.
“Hospice isn’t about talking about dying every day. It’s about living life during the time that’s left and supporting the family through the process,” said Mary Grose, Home Nursing Agency Hospice RN. “We do the medical side of it — the symptom management, but it’s more about letting them live the life they have left and getting the most quality out of it. Everything else just goes along with that.”
Home Nursing Agency has been providing hospice care since 1979 and became Medicare certified in 1983. To receive services, a patient must be diagnosed with a terminal condition and thought to have a life expectancy of six months or less.
“Many patients and their families have the misconception that hospice is just extra help, but you get a case manager who is a nurse, home health aides who help with personal care, pastoral services and expertise from a medical director who helps with symptom management,” said hospice medical director Dr. Amy Swindell. “You also get physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy as needed, durable medical supplies, a nutritionist, bereavement services and medications related to symptom management are covered.”
Patients range in age from infancy to centenarians, but the services provided are customized to incorporate personal interests.
“We have had very young children and people who are 102,” said Annie Wright, Home Nursing patient care supervisor. “We want to offer help in making those transitions that are hard to make. When we get to the end of our lives, there are so many decisions to be made and sometimes we are weakened to the point we need the support of other people to say, ‘We’re going to help you get through.’ We do a lot of things apart from the physical care of the patient.”
Hospice care is provided wherever the patient resides, whether it’s in their own home, the home of a family member, an assisted living facility or a nursing facility.
“Wherever that person calls home, that’s where we go to provide the services for them,” said Dee Thorpe, Home Nursing Agency nurse practitioner.
“We want to acknowledge they are more than just the diagnosis they’ve received,” Myers said. “A lot of people don’t know there is the Dream Foundation for adults, which is kind of like the Make A Wish Foundation, and we’ve connected two patients with that. We also work with the Bob Perks Cancer Fund and the Daisy Fund. There are so many out there.”
Although a prerequisite for receiving hospice care services is a life expectancy of six months, those services continue throughout the lifespan of the patient as long as needed.
Mary Rose of Walker Township became a patient of Home Nursing Agency Hospice in 2011 and the continued care has allowed her to remain in her home with her son, Ken Rose.
“Staying home was important to her,” Ken Rose said. “It’s where she’s most comfortable and where I am as well.”
What sets hospice care apart is the fact that not only are the services provided for the patient, but include the entire family prior to and after the death of their loved one.
“We try to simplify the medical care for the families as much as we can because we want the time they have with the patient not to be spent dealing with complex medical equipment,” Wright said.
Swindell said everything hospice care does is about improving a better quality of life for whatever time there is left.
Bereavement care is offered to the family for up to 13 months after the hospice patient’s death, including specialized counseling geared toward children to help them as they work through the grieving process.
As an added facet to the hospice program, Home Nursing Agency hosts an annual Lights of Love observance to provide an opportunity for families to honor a loved one receiving services through the program or to share precious memories of someone who has died.
The Huntingdon location of Home Nursing Agency will host its observance at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24. Luminaries are available for a special observance for loved ones. For more information, call Home Nursing Agency at 1-(800)-445- 6262.
Often, the services provided through hospice care means more than the patients and their families can adequately express in words.
“I really have a hard time saying what hospice has meant for us,” Ken Rose said. “It means there is someone there all the time who you can call and they’ll respond. It’s meant everything to us.”
