What IS End of Life Care?

What IS End of Life Care?

End of life.  What does that mean, really?  If one thinks about it, it becomes obvious that the definitions are as many as there are people considering it!  It could be final minutes, days, months, OR years in a “normal” lifespan.  It could be the final moments before a traumatic injury or intrusive illness renders the body unable to continue to function. 

For my purposes as a human developmentalist and a professional care manager, the last months of a lifespan in a body that is becoming more and more tired and painful and a mind and heart that are calm in the certainty that life has been lived as it was meant to be constitutes the end of life. 

End of life care includes comfort care, relief of pain and anxiety, the means to savor everything that is most pleasant and treasured.  Loving relationships of friends and families, opportunity to make amends and embrace in understanding are more important and significant, somehow, at end of life.  To some it may include hosting one last big bash, going on that fishing trip or cruise, or being involved in preparing one more Christmas dinner.  

Hospice care, palliative care, comfort care, and the “slow medicine” philosophy are all intended to enhance one’s end of life experience.  To finish a life well lived with dignity, love, and comfort is our wish for our clients and their families.  It is also our wish in the world beyond our personal knowledge that seems to value length over quality; a society that takes pride in the ability to take control over the natural consequences of aging and dying in order to make them more palatable and attractive.  In so doing, we rob individuals of the opportunity to really LIVE during the last months and years of life.

When you hear the word “Hospice” I hope you will reconsider what is intended;  NOT the suggestion that one should “give up,” NOT the insinuation that there is no hope for anything more, NOT the prediction of imminent passing.  Instead, Hospice means the promise of best possible, realized potential, freedom to be real and genuine and experience the essence of the best of life on earth.  A gift.     Please don’t be fearful.

Nancy McCambridge Driskill, RN, CMC