When someone is receiving hospice care in their own home, that means they are being provided both care and support throughout the final stages of their lives. This is the type of care given exclusively to those who are terminally ill. While someone who sustained a serious injury might have a temporary at-home nurse to help them get better sooner, someone in hospice will be receiving at home primary care for the duration of their life which will not likely be long due to their diagnosis.
If you are curious about whether there must be more to it than just home care for the remainder of their lives, here’s some more information to help you better understand the ins and outs of hospice home health.
What’s Most Important?
With other reasons someone might need at-home health, such as the earlier example of a serious injury, the point of hospice home care isn’t rehabilitation. Unlike most other conditions, there is no chance of getting better when a patient has a terminal disease. This means the focus on comfort and support for the patient.
Those focuses will vary per patient but there will be a major focus on aspects of care such as comfort and ways on how to improve quality of life. Think of things like pain management, both for physical and mental anguish. Making those final days easier, smoother, and more comfortable is the absolute main focus.
How Is Care Decided?
This is something that the patient (along with their family) will work on along with the doctor. The medical team, both doctors, nurses, and aides will be helping out the patient by providing ideas and suggestions based on a few different factors. Some determining factors will be age, gender, the particular terminal disease, and the patients prior health history.
No matter the particulars, there’s going to be a focus on pain management and emotional support. This could mean religious or spiritual care and well as assistance when it comes to navigating the end-of-life process. Having that help will take plenty of stress off the patient and family so a focus can be brought back to spending more quality time together.
What Does Care Look Like?
Right in line with everything mentioned, the care will be tailored to the individual’s needs but there are some common aspects to hospice care that most patients will be receiving. There’s the common day-to-day tasks that people would normally do in their homes but no with a little help. Think of things like bathing, shaving, getting dressed, and changing the bedsheets. Depending on the patient’s particular patient’s needs, there might be an aide who can come and help with the smaller things like that.
For the medical care that’s needed, a nurse will be coming to the home and administering care. Depending on the level needed and the state of the thermal condition, a nurse might only need to be there a few times a week or, on the other side of it, someone might need to be there multiple times a day.