Healthcare Professionals
What is the one life event that you and every single one of your patients will experience?
HINT: It is also the one life event that in all your education and training, you have been taught the least about.
Death, the answer is death.
While 92% of Americans say it’s important to discuss their wishes for end-of-life care, only 32% have had such a conversation. 95% of Americans say they would be willing to talk about their wishes, and 53% even say they’d be relieved to discuss it (The Conversation Project National Survey, 2018).
In a Pew Research Study, when the situation posed was:
If you had a disease with no hope of improvement and it was hard to function in day-to-day activities, would you want stop treatment so you could die or do everything possible to extend your life?
The answers were split down the middle with 46% wanting to be kept comfortable until they die and 46% wanting every life-extending measure.
What is your answer? What is the answer of your patients? What is the answer of your patients’ family caregivers? Patients and their loved ones don’t always answer this question the same and that is ok because the right answer is the honest one unique to the person giving it.
Not being able to talk with our patients and their families about end-of-life is a disadvantage and disservice.
Who is the one healthcare extender who spends the most time with the patient the most?
HINT: This healthcare role is an unpaid position.
The family caregiver, the answer is the family or “uncompensated” caregiver.
Nearly every one of your patients has a relative or friend who helps them with their care and/or living activities and will continue to do so until the patient’s death. One in five Americans is a family or uncompensated caregiver. Like professional or paid caregivers such as physicians, nurses, allied health, etc family caregivers continue to heed the call to provide more and more care.
I encourage all healthcare professionals to recognize who the family caregiver(s) is in every patient situation, to recognize their role as an essential care extender, and treat them as a part of the care team.
Free Resources for Healthcare Professionals:
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Family Caregiver Position Description
A position description to help families and healthcare professionals alike understand what a family caregiver really does (from a former healthcare CEO).
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At Peace Toolkit
The At Peace Toolkit is your guide to being at peace with end of life. This expansive packet walks you through setting up the medical ID on your smartphone, establishing your advance healthcare directives, organizing administrative details, and starting conversations with loved ones.
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Precious Time Implementation Guide
This implementation guide shows healthcare professionals how to communicate the reality of the end-of-life situation to patients and their families.