Why people like hospice

This is the second in a two part series. See the first part here.

The question I left hanging in part one was why people who have experienced it have such a positive view of hospice. Let's get real, the people who are surveyed about their past hospice experience are almost all going to be people who are being asked about the final days, weeks, or months with someone they loved. Would you really expect these people to have a good things to say about that time? Of course not. That's why it's important to figure out why they do have good things to say about their hospice experience.

So, why do people with a past hospice experience have a positive view of hospice? The answer, in my mind, is somewhat simple. When people stop me on the street tell me how wonderful hospice is and how much we helped one of their family members or friends, I usually say, “We’re the experts at the one thing that nobody wants to be an expert at.” I believe that simple statement is why hospice is so well received.

If you have a decent sized family, odds are someone in your family is going to go through a terminal illness in your lifetime. If you have many friends, again, odds are one of them is going to be sick and eventually die. Morbid I know, but that does not mean it’s not true. Now, when that happens, will you know everything you need to know to help? Will you know who to call to get medical equipment? Will you be able to get the doctor to make the seemingly daily medication changes as the illness progresses? Will you be able to give them their bath and change their clothes? Will you know what to say when they get scared? Do you know about the resources in your community that can help in this tough situation? The answer to most or all of these questions is probably no, and that makes you normal. Why would you know these things? Why would you want to? How many times in your life will you need to know these things? Once or twice, three at the most. Few people are an expert at the dying process, and even fewer want to be. Hospice workers are experts at the one thing nobody wants to be an expert at.

Part of this is the team concept. Every hospice patient gets a nurse, an aide, a social worker, and a chaplain. All of them (unless they are new to the job) have done this before. There is very little you can ask for or say to a hospice worker that they have not heard before. I’m sure it will be the first time you have said it, but it’s not the first time they have heard it. It is the nature of hospice that what you are experiencing for the first and possibly for the last time the hospice team will experience twice that day or week. People need answers to their questions. They need someone who can help when it is needed. They need someone who understands. That is what hospice does.

We are the experts at the one thing nobody wants to be an expert at, and for that reason people love hospice and the people who do it for a living.