It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that hospice care is one of the most important health care services. Indeed, there are very few things that are as important as providing physical, emotional, and spiritual support to individuals that are living with life-limiting illnesses. Considering how vital hospice care is, it’s not really surprising that there are many individuals involved to make it work. If you want to know more about this, read on as we discuss the five essential workers that make up hospice care!
Doctors
Health is often the biggest concern of people living with life-limiting illnesses. This is why doctors play such a big role when it comes to hospice care. Aside from performing the regular responsibilities of a doctor, hospice care doctors also play a huge role when it comes to the technical side of hospice care. Because of their expertise, these doctors help patients and their families by relaying information, creating a care plan, and helping them with the various decisions they need to make with end-of-life care.
Nurses
Now, doctors can’t do everything themselves. This is why home nursing care is pivotal to hospice care. Hospice care requires a slew of different types of nurses that have specialized skill sets to match the needs of their patients. These nurses are involved from the moment a patient enters hospice care until their life has run its course. Having the right type of nurse goes a long way when it comes to improving the quality of life of patients with life-limiting illnesses.
Medical Social Workers
The thing you have to understand about hospice care is that it’s meant to address more than just the physical needs of the patients. Medical Social Workers provide support and guidance to people who are facing a lot of difficulties, confusion, and fear due to the situation that they are in. This guidance is incredibly important, as it will help people feel more at peace and will greatly improve their quality of life.
Chaplains
Aside from addressing their emotional needs, hospice care also works towards helping patients with their spiritual concerns. This is the role that a hospice chaplain fulfills. Hospice chaplains provide spiritual guidance for people who are seeking comfort in spirituality at the end of their life. It’s important to note that chaplains do not seek to convert patients to any specific religion. Patients also do not have to engage with a chaplain if they don’t want to.
Aides
A lot of work goes into hospice care. This is why they require the help of many aides that perform a multitude of different responsibilities that help make hospice care successful. These people help provide the hygiene care that patients need.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts involved to make hospice care successful. Hopefully, this article has helped shed some light on hospice care. Our main goal is to help you understand the entire process so that you can have a better appreciation of all the work that these men and women put into taking care of people with life-limiting illnesses.
At Gateway Home Health and Hospice, we provide quality hospice care in Denver, Colorado Springs and Phoenix. Our clinicians and therapists always strive to do better than what is expected of us. We advocate proper patient care from beginning to end, with the full benefits of individualized medical, physical, and emotional care. Get in touch with us today and let us know how we can help.