Hospice is a type of specialized care prescribed by a doctor when a patient’s condition has moved past curative matters. In other words, hospice care is primarily sought when a cure for a condition, illness, or disease is no longer medically possible. It is instead a focus on the comfort and quality of life as a patient moves into their final stages of life. Generally, hospice care is ordered when a patient is not expected to live longer than six months. Hospice care includes a team of medical professionals and counselors who come together to make the end-of-life stage for the patient and their loved ones as comfortable and easy as possible.
Hospice Team Provides Many Levels of Care
Hospice care is provided by a team of medical professionals who are tasked with helping care for a terminally ill patient in many ways. Of course, their physical well-being and medical needs are addressed through comfort measures and pain management. However, psychological, spiritual, and even practical needs are met by a comprehensive hospice team. A hospice team is made up of doctors, nurses, spiritual counselors, and aides. One immensely important part of this team is the hospice aide.
What is a Hospice Aide? What to Expect as Primary Duties
Hospice aides are trained medical professionals who are a vital part of a well-rounded hospice team. In fact, many might argue, with good reason, that they are one of the most important team members of all. They are specifically trained to provide personal care for patients on hospice, improving their comfort and quality of life. There are several key duties that are performed by hospice aides.
Typical Hospice Aide Services
The following are some common services provided by hospice aides. Of course, each patient’s needs will vary, as will their and their families’ preferences for care, but the information below gives at least a general idea of the role played by the aide in the hospice team overall:
- Patient Personal Care: When a patient moves towards the final phase of their life, even minor tasks can become difficult and seem insurmountable. Bathing, eating, dressing, combing hair, brushing teeth, cutting toenails, and other basic tasks can become practically impossible for a patient to do on their own. Consequently, without hospice aides, the patient will have to lean on family members or friends to perform these tasks, which at best can take away the patient’s dignity and at worst can be dangerous for the patient or lead to injury. After all, when a patient is unable to help with their own care and a non-professional tries to help, this can lead to accidents and injuries instead of having the desired consequence.
- Medical Tasks: Another common way that hospice aides contribute to a hospice team is by helping with various medical tasks. This can include reminding patients to take their medications that have been prescribed, changing bandages or monitoring vitals like temperature and heart rate. In many cases, the aides are the eyes and ears on the ground and provide reports of concerns or changes for the benefit of the entire team, or in order to provide patients with the best care in a prompt manner.
- Emotional Support: Even though there are usually counselors who are part of the hospice team, in many cases, the aides also offer a measure of emotional support. They are with patients for longer periods of time, providing them with various types of medical care. As a result, they often form close bonds with the patient and their family and friends and become trusted companions. This leads patients to lean on them for their hopes, fears, emotional issues, and even share their life stories.
- Patient Comfort: Hospice care is designed to provide comfort for a patient as they near the end of their lives. Therefore, another way that aides play a key role in the hospice team is by keeping patients comfortable. This can include telling nurses or doctors that medication needs to be adjusted but can also include massages, help with positioning, and performing and teaching additional pain-relieving techniques, all to ease discomfort.
- Household Chores: Outside the medical duties and patient care provided by hospice aides, they also sometimes complete light household chores. This can include helping with preparing meals, laundry, light cleaning, and more. When a hospice aide takes this routine, yet necessary, tasks over for the family, it eases their burden and even gives them the gift of spending more quality time with their loved ones, which is much more important than any task.
- End-of-Life Support: As a patient’s time of death draws near, hospice aides and other team members recognize the signs of impending death. This can give the family and support system an idea of the way things will begin to happen, so they are not caught off guard by what is taking place. Hospice aides also ensure that a patient is never left alone during their final moments. Instead, they provide consistent emotional and medical support for the family and the patients as well until the end arrives. Then, they help guide the family on the next steps.
Why The Duties of a Hospice Aide Are so Important
The primary role of an entire hospice team, but especially the hospice aide, is to ensure that a patient maintains their dignity, is properly cared for, and is as pain-free as possible throughout their final days. Their emotional support and knowledge of what’s to come is key in ensuring that a family can cope with the difficult emotions brought on by losing a family member and an approaching death.
Hospice Aides Play a Vital Role in the Team
Hospice Aides, like those we have on our team at Doctor’s Choice Home Health & Hospice, play a vital role in the overall hospice team, providing valuable care to patients and their families. Without hospice aides, many of the services they perform would go undone or would fall on either family, friends, or other team members of the hospice team. Thankfully, they consistently perform this vital role.
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