I write in response to Evelyn Resh’s guest column about hospice care (“Finds hospice, like other health care, pruned,” Oct. 4).
She has my sympathy for the loss of her mother and aunt, and the difficult situation she was in. I am a home-care nurse who works primarily with a geriatric population. Our agency provides health aides to work in people’s homes, and we collaborate with hospice frequently.
I have found all of the many hospice nurses and other personnel I have worked with in this area to be highly trained, professional and compassionate. While the services that hospice provides do not include around-the-clock care, the families I have worked with have all been grateful for the skilled support that is provided.
Opioid medications are used, along with other medications for comfort, but they are not always needed and are closely monitored by the hospice nurse working with a physician. The patient’s preferences for pain control and alertness are taken into consideration. In no instance does hospice work to hasten death, and it is not rare for a patient to “graduate” from hospice if their health improves enough.
While Ms. Resh found end-of-life care “tedious, strenuous, smelly, ugly, and sometimes gruesome,” everyone has an individual experience. There are certainly people who find all those descriptors true of the birth process.
And like birth, the process of death can be a beautiful experience when a person has a chance to say things previously unsaid, and make or repair connections that will remain a comfort to those left behind.
Many of us feel privileged to be part the natural process of dying, supporting both patient and family. I have found all of the hospices in this area to be staffed with skilled, knowledgeable and caring people.
I would hate one person’s painful experience to give all hospice a bad reputation.
Meg Ryan
Northampton
The writer is a registered nurse and clinical director of Collective Home Care in West Hatfield.