Ethics in End of Life Care, sounds fascinating, doesn't it?

Today I am jumping up and down for joy because I finished a four week online course on Ethics in Hospice care for a Management training program that I'm working on.  I expected the course to be fairly easy, pretty boring and to require minimal effort.  Boy, was I wrong!!

I am reminded that ethical decision making is at the forefront of what we, as hospice employees, do every day.  Being privileged to share in one of the most profound parts of any persons life,  the ethics involved in any life changing and some not so life changing decisions is of the utmost importance.

The hospice industry in general is often mis-perceived.  We are not agents of death, we do not shorten lives, we also do not intentionally prolong lives, although for many of our patients this occurs, probably as a result of an increase in quality of symptom assessment and management.  We do not take away rights, we advocate for everyone's right to live the best life they can within the confines of their illness.

So often we hear people say, "If only we had known about hospice sooner."  How many patients do we get that could have benefited so much more if only they understood who we are, and who we are not.

The greatest thing I learned from the course I completed today is the power of decision making and education.  I've come away with new ideas on policy making in regards to helping our patients self determine their own wishes and ways of educating our staff and the public on palliative sedation, which is NOT assisted suicide, it is allowing a patient who wants to just "sleep" through the distress that sometimes comes at the end of life and cannot be controlled any other way to make that determination on their own and to receive assistance with it.

What I would like any person reading this to know is that Hospice clinicians are not angels of mercy or angels of death.  We are just people who care about helping others to live life as well as they can within the confines of their illness.  Hospice patients drive, dance, dine out, exercise, travel, shop, attend parties and perform lots of other activities, often because of well managed symptoms.   Our patient's best interests are always at the heart of what we do for them.  We have discussions on at least a weekly basis of the ethics of this or that when it comes to our patients and/or their families wishes.  Our goal is always to help our clients achieve their own goals within the scope of our practice.

My thanks to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization for a course on Ethics that was engaging, eye opening and highly beneficial to my practice as a hospice clinician and manager.