This is National Nurses Week, and a perfect moment to highlight the special training, ability and insights that distinguish hospice nurses in truly remarkable ways.

Ann Anderson had been training as an end-of-life-care nurse for only a short time when she was asked the "million dollar question" (as her mentor...

The Changeable Meaning of "Do Everything"

In the final stages of congestive heart failure, Bart Andrews lay in bed, minimally responsive and gasping for breath. He was surrounded by his adult children, whose conversation kept returning to the refrain, "We want everything done for him."

Mary Winters, RN, one...

You have introduced the idea of having a family conversation, or a series of conversations, about end-of-life wishes and goals. Mom and Dad are on board, the adult children want to know more, and everyone is ready to take the next steps to ensure wishes are followed. Now what?

This...

A Conversation for Our Time

Amy Katz, rabbi of Temple Beth El in Springfield, Mass., says she has been trying to sway her congregants on pivotal social, emotional and spiritual issues through her sermons for years. But none seems to have caught their attention -- and prompted action...

I recently met a remarkable young man who cared for his grandfather in the elder man's final years of life, just as grandfather used to care for grandson. G. Beaudin, now in his 40s, spent his young-adult years being cared for and mentored by his grandfather,

The woman, a grandmother who lived in New York City, was in her final hours when Abby Spilka came to sit by her bedside. The end was peaceful. "Watching her take her last breath was like watching a butterfly fall asleep, its wings fluttering progressively more slowly until they become...

"If you could have seen how his face changed," Rebecca Kaplin said of the hospice patient she was visiting. "He was having a very upsetting day. When I walked in and offered him a simple vase of flowers for his room, he went from a worried frown to the most...

As Shakespeare said in Much Ado about Nothing, "Everyone can master a grief but he that has it."

When you are in the midst of grieving for a loved one, there is no such thing as mastery. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. It...

Amid the celebratory swirl and pageantry surrounding the recent Academy Awards, I had a very different discussion about movies with my colleague Debra Oryzysyn. A bereavement counselor with Visiting Nurse Service of New York Hospice and Palliative Care, Debra uses movies as part of her toolbox...

"My little old dog:
A heart-beat
At my feet."
-- Edith Wharton

"I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons."
-- Will Rogers

It was quite a sight: Tug, a 50-pound mass of brown silky curls, lying in bed next...

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in...

Learning Through Design

A recent competition to design new hospice uniforms, which we ran in partnership with a leading arts school in New York City, presents an opportunity to shine a light on how incredibly multi-faceted hospice care is on the broader scale, and how what might seem like smaller...

Bill wanted us to know his tears were not of sadness but of joy, as he stood by the bedside of his wife, who was in the final stages of cancer. "I've been delightfully surprised," he said of the level of care and compassion she and the family received in...

Never before have I seen so much discussion about health care in this country. That's a good thing. It can empower Americans to make more informed health care decisions for themselves and their loved ones, from the beginning to the end of life.

As we seek to...

My colleague Mary Winters has heard many different soundtracks playing in the rooms of those nearing the end of life. She's heard soaring jazz music, soothing classical, and the unmistakable exuberance of "The Price Is Right" game show.

As Director...

When Teresa Lin's aging father was admitted to the hospital with a condition that could have been life threatening, she suggested he do something tantamount to breaking a millennia-old cultural taboo.

She asked her father, a Chinese American, to talk to his family and his doctors about his wishes for...

Over the summer, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) -- a go-to guide for mental health professionals -- began considering a proposal that could undermine bereavement as a universal, normal, if profoundly painful, experience. Editors compiling the next edition, DSM-V, are considering that the diagnosis of major...

During recent debate over health care reform, the brouhaha over so-called death panels was cynical, dangerous, erroneous and detrimental to patient care. And New York State is fighting back.

The histrionics focused on a provision in the Congressional bill that called for physicians to offer information on palliative care--pain...

On Death and Dying, Blogging and Reality TV

Forty years ago, Elisabeth Kubler Ross railed against the indignity and inhumanity of cancer patients being shunted to the back wards of the hospital to die alone. "We isolate both the dying and the old, and it serves a purpose,"

"With Sympathy"

The most indelible support system during end-of-life and bereavement is made up of nothing more -- and nothing less -- than human connections. When we cannot cure, but we can connect.