The Hospice Companion

The Hospice Companion is a guide to the processes of care during the intensive, interpersonal experiences of hospice work. This resource highlights the mission and values of modern-day hospice through the individual and combined efforts of the field's most valuable asset, the hospice professional. This easy-to-navigate clinical decision support tool for caregivers of those with life-limiting illnesses allows for personal and professional growth and a deeply gratifying sense of accomplishment as they proceed in the all-important work of caring for the dying. The fourth edition of The Hospice Companion features a thoroughly current guide to clinical processes and symptom management, providing hospice professionals with a concise summary of changes that have influenced clinical practice over the last several years.

'The Hospice Companion' is an easy-to-navigate clinical decision support tool for caregivers of those with life-limiting illnesses

More than ever it is incumbent upon those who provide care to those with life-limiting illnesses to be keenly aware of both the extent and the limits of technological advances that can add either great burden or great benefit to seriously ill patients and their families. The Hospice Companion has been created to operationalize the mission and values of modern-day hospice through the individual and combined efforts of our most valuable asset, the hospice professional. The Hospice Companion is intended as a guide through which some mastery of the seemingly complex, challenging, and oftentimes chaotic world of advanced disease may be derived. Use of this "tool" to direct processes of care during the intensive interpersonal experiences of hospice work should allow the greatest opportunity for personal and professional growth and a deeply gratifying sense of accomplishment as you proceed in the all-important work of caring for the dying. The second edition features a thoroughly current guide to clinical processes and symptom management, providing hospice professionals with a concise summary of changes that have influenced clinical practice over the last several years. Moreover, each chapter now concludes with a list of recommended readings, culled from the complete literature searches were done for each symptom complex.

Rev. ed of: The hospice companion / Perry G. Fine. 2008.

This companion is designed to promote, establish, maintain and continuously improve comprehensive systems of care that ensure the highest quality of services to meet the needs of patients and their families during the last phase of life.

"The overarching purpose of this manual, reflecting the essential goals of hospice, is to help maximize the quality of living and dying of patients during the last phase of life. It will be through disciplined clinical uniformity and standardized practices that personalized, tailored care can then be aptly applied. And with that, hopes for individual epiphany may have the chance to be realized as those who entrust their care to us meet their earthly ends. With due regard for the complexities of peoples' lives, especially during severe illness, it is premised that identification and understanding of discrete situations (intertwined and enmeshed as they may be) will promote the elaboration of a care plan that will have the greatest likelihood of meeting these worthy ends"--

Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals A thoroughly updated and expanded new edition of the only book providing comprehensive treatment of hospice and palliative care in veterinary medicine Animals with life-limiting illnesses deserve compassionate, thoughtful, end-of-life care. Their caregivers and families, faced with the loss of a beloved companion, deserve empathy, support, and education, to guide them through an emotionally wrenching period and provide their companion animals with the highest possible quality of life. In recent years, the ethics of care and service to sick and dying animals and their caregivers has been the subject of considerable attention. Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals, 2nd Edition provides a thorough update to the first and only complete guide to this field of service, its foundations, and its applications. It addresses the needs of pets, caregivers, and veterinary professionals alike, including fundamental ethical and emotional principles as well as detailed discussion of specific illnesses and life-limiting conditions. The expanded second edition incorporates cutting-edge research into animal behavior and cognition to enrich the reader’s understanding of companion animals’ emotional needs and their experience of illness and death. Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals, 2nd Edition readers will also find: Existing chapters expanded to incorporate new research and practical experience New chapters discussing factors underlying the decision to euthanize, the potential role of ethology in palliative care, and more A companion website with educational handouts for use in veterinary practices Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals is an indispensable resource for caregivers and veterinary professionals alike.

Messages and prayers for those facing life-threatening illness, preparing for dying, or meeting other transitions.