Hospice and palliative care is some of the most challenging, rewarding and

necessary work in the healthcare industry.

VOLUNTEER SUPPORT GROUP - SAVE THE DATE!

Monday, FEBRUARY 6th from 5:00-6:30 PM

We are hosting our first Support Group for patient-volunteers after a lengthy COVID-hiatus. Invitees are those who have completed the COVID Safety Precautions Training or attended the 3-day October 2022 Training. Volunteers have an important role in our care giving team. This support group is essential to volunteer's well-being and provides in-service education to enhance specific skills, knowledge, and competencies. Come connect with others for an evening of sharing and insights as we explore our patient-family experiences. Light refreshments will be provided. (Kauai Hospice Conference Room).

YOUTUBE: HOW TO TALK END-OF-LIFE CARE WITH A DYING PATIENT

ATUL GAWANDE, MD (3:01 minutes)

Renowned American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher Atul Gawande, MD discusses the four important parts of talking with terminally ill patients about their end-of-life care. Rather than pressing patients to make hard decisions, Gawande emphasizes the importance of asking questions about their hopes and fears. This excerpt was taken from a program titled "How to Live When You Have to Die" featuring Dr. Gawande in 2010. Mahalo to Kauai Hospice Nurse Practitioner Nani Domingcil for sharing. Click to watch this very short but excellent video.

ARTICLE: 'I IMAGINED BLACK-PLUMED HORSES': SARAH HUGHES ON PLANNING HER OWN BIG, FAT GOTHIC FUNERAL

The Guardian - March 26, 2022

The Guardian and Observer writer Sarah Hughes – who died last year of cancer aged 48 – often fantasized as a child about her own ‘big death scene’. Then a terminal cancer diagnosis made things all too real. Sarah’s article begins: “From an early age, I was obsessed by death. Cursed with a short temper, I was the sort of child who would storm off to my room when angry, where, lying on my bed, I would pass the time imagining my funeral and how devastated my family would be by my premature death.” For those who enjoy a good read, click here for more. Sarah is also the author of Holding Tight, Letting Go: My Life, Death and All the Madness In Between.

COMMON SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF DYING PERSONS



• The search for meaning in life and illness
• The need to maintain hope
• The need for relatedness to God, a belief system, and others
• The need for forgiveness
• The need for transcendence

During the time of dying, remembering, assessing, searching for meaning, forgiving, reconciling, loving and hoping are all especially active and part of the spiritual journey. Source: Healing Ministry, Volume 12, Number 4, Fall 2005, pg 29.

GOOD READS:  "BOOKENDS - A FAMILY DOCTOR EXPLORES BIRTH, DEATH, AND TOKOTHANATOLOGY"

by Susan Boron, MD (Published August 2022)

Toko-thanat-ology (n): The theoretical study of the parallels between birth and death, especially in medical care. Through ten short chapters, author Susan Boron, MD explains “tokothanatology,” the study of common practices that surround both birth and death -- events that “bookend” our existence. Both represent times of profound change, when patients and their families need emotional support and empathy from their caregivers. Dr. Boron, daughter of an obstetrician who pioneered family-centered birth and spouse of a man who worked in palliative care, gives us an easy to read memoir that explores the powerfully human aspects of caring for people at both ends of their lives and how expertise in one area of care easily transfers to the other. 

GOOD QUOTES: ON LOVE

From Tuesdays with Morrie, By Mitch Albom

As long as we can love each other,

And remember the feeling of love we had,

We can die without ever really going away.

All the love you created is still there.

All the memories are still there.

You live on- in the hearts

Of everyone you have touched

And nurtured while you were here.

Death ends a life, not a relationship.

ARTICLE: HOW TO OVERCOME COMPASSION FATIGUE

"The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet." ~ Naomi Rachel Remen, MD

Anyone who has been in a position of caregiving understands the toll and emotional exhaustion that can come if you don’t take care of yourself first. You very quickly find yourself running on empty and eventually filled with resentment where once your heart was a well of kindness. Compassion fatigue has been described as the ‘cost of caring’ for those in emotional and physical pain and is characterized by deep physical and emotional exhaustion. Continue reading...