What Does a Hospice Volunteer Do?

Hospice care (English: hospice care) is not a cure, but a medical treatment that focuses on reducing the symptoms and delaying the development of a patient in the weeks or even months before the death. Care.

The fundamental core of hospitalpice is to help those who are leaving to confess and repent.

Hospice care is a lofty cause that conforms to human interests and has important significance for the progress of human society:

1. Hospice care meets the objective requirements of human pursuit of high quality of life. With the progress of human social civilization, people have put forward higher requirements on the quality of life and death, like welcoming new life and turning the first page of life Same; send away, close the last page of the life course, put a perfect period. In order to allow the patient to obtain tranquility, calmness and comfort when they die, so that the family members do not leave any regrets and shadows after the patient's death.

2. Hospice care is a sign of social civilization. Everyone hopes for a smooth life and a peaceful life. Hospice care is a social public cause carried out to allow patients to reach the other side of their lives with dignity and comfort. It is a sign of social civilization.

3. Hospice care embodies the lofty ethics of medical care. The core content of medical work ethics is to respect the value of patients, including life value and personal dignity; hospice care is implemented by the overall care of patients, using scientific psychological care methods, superb superb Clinical nursing methods, as well as palliative and supportive therapies, help patients to reduce physical and mental pain to the greatest extent, improve the quality of life, and calmly go through the last stage of life. As a specific implementer, medical personnel fully embodies the noble medical ethics of improving service value and quality of life. ^[1]

(1) Body care: Relieve pain through the care of medical staff and family members, and cooperate with natural healthy diet to improve body energy.

(2) Heart care: Through the establishment of ideas, alleviate the fear, anxiety, anxiety, complaints, and concerns, so that they can be at ease, relieved, and full of hope and confidence for the future world (referring to after death).

(Three) spiritual care

(I) Priority objects:

1. Sick patients and their families

The goal of hospice care is to improve the quality of life of patients. By eliminating or alleviating pain and other physical symptoms, resolving psychological problems and mental anxiety, patients can face death peacefully. At the same time, hospice care can also help the patient's family to bear some fatigue and stress.

Hospice is different

1. Focus on care

For end-of-life patients, the hope of cure has become very slim, and the most needed are physical comfort, pain control, life care and psychological support. Therefore, the goal is to shift from treatment to symptomatic treatment and nursing care.

2. Uphold human dignity

Although the patient is at the end of life, his personal dignity should not be diminished due to reduced vitality, personal rights should not be deprived of physical exhaustion, as long as he does not enter the coma stage, he still has thoughts and feelings, and medical staff should maintain and support his personal rights. ; Such as retaining personal privacy and their own lifestyle, participating in the development of medical care programs, choosing a method of death, etc.

3 Improve the quality of life at the end of life

Some people think unilaterally that they are waiting for death. Life is worthless. Patients have become depressed. They have lost interest in everything around them. Even some medical staff think so. Rude, not sure how to face the patient. Hospice care believes that hospice is also a life, it is a special type of life, so correctly understanding and respecting the value of the patient's final life and improving its quality of life are the most effective services for hospice patients.

4 Facing death together

There is life, there is death, and death is the natural law of the objective world like birth. It cannot be violated. It is the fact that everyone must experience. It is death that makes life meaningful. And dying patients are just those who face death earlier than us. Death gives meaning to life. Death is the ultimate decision of a person. Therefore, we must cherish life, cherish time, meet challenges and face up bravely.

The Hospice campaign started at St Christopher's Hospital in the UK. In the 1950s, British nurse Cicel Saunders saw the pain of dying patients in her long-term advanced cancer hospital and was determined to change the situation. In 1967, she founded the world-famous hospice organization (ST.Christophers'Hospice), so that critically ill patients can get the necessary satisfaction and comfortable care during the last part of their life journey. Finally, many countries and regions in the world have carried out hospice care practice and theoretical research. In the late 1970s, hospice care was introduced to the United States and introduced to China in the late 1980s.

The official application of the term "hospice care" began in 1988 when the Tianjin Hospice Care Center was established. this

Hospice

Previously, many scholars' translations of Hospice and HospiceCare often failed to express their connotations and extensions well. Hospice has been translated as "Economic Hospital" or "Death Hospital". HospiceCare is translated as "resting care" or "end-care". Scholars in Hong Kong call this "Hospice Service" and in Taiwan it is called "Quiet Care."

On July 15, 1988, Dr. Huang Tianzhong, a Chinese American, and Professor Wu Xianzhong, Dean of Tianjin Medical College, cooperated with Vice Dean Cui Yitai to jointly establish China's first hospice care research institution, Tianjin Medical College Hospice Care Research Center. Dr. Huang has successively funded RMB 100,000, and Tianjin Medical College has also provided corresponding funds. Wang Guiying, chairman of the Tianjin Nursing Society, personally subsidized 1,000 yuan. Nursing expert Gan Lanjun was appointed as the deputy director of the institution (in May 1991, he became a consultant). Carry out hospice research. The establishment of Tianjin Medical College's Hospice Care Research Center marks that China has become one of the world's hospice care research and practices. Since it is China's first hospice research institution, the news media is quite interested. It has caused strong social repercussions through various newspapers and periodicals. Shanghai, Beijing, Anhui, Xi'an, Ningxia, Chengdu, Zhejiang, Guangzhou and other cities have also established hospice hospitals, wards or nursing homes. While actively carrying out academic research, the Hospice Care Research Center of Tianjin Medical College started to build a hospice ward. In October 1990, the ward began to treat patients. Major newspapers reported that the Beijing Science and Education Film Studio invested more than 100,000 yuan to produce a science and education film entitled "Hospice Care" and held its premiere in the Great Hall of the People. Hundreds of dying patients have reached the end of their lives with dignity, comfort and serenity. After the establishment of the ward, it received thousands of visiting students from provinces, cities, and autonomous regions of the country, as well as experts and scholars from the United States, Britain, Japan, Ireland, Canada, Australia and other countries. So far, although the development of China's hospice cause has only a short history of nine years, it has made remarkable progress. Since the establishment of the Hospice Research Center of Tianjin Medical College in 1988, the development of hospice care in China has gone through three stages. That is, the theory has introduced the initial stage of research, the stage of publicity and professional training, and the stage of comprehensive development of academic research and clinical practice.

In March 1991, the Hospice Research Center held the "First National Hospice Academic Symposium and Workshop". On this basis, five more hospice workshops have been held. These include two "Sino-American Hospice Psychological Care Workshops", "Sino-British Hospice Care Workshops", "93 Beijing Hospice International Workshops", etc., which have been held in Tianjin, Beijing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Tangshan, Qingdao, Yantai, Lushan and other places held hospice academic reports or series of hospice lectures. Nearly 2,000 people engaged in medical, nursing, psychological and other aspects have participated in, which has contributed to the formation and development of hospice career teams in China. In May 1992, with the approval of the National Science and Technology Commission, the Tianjin Medical College and the Eastern and Western Death Education Research Association jointly held the "First Oriental Hospice International Symposium" in Tianjin. Minister of Health Chen Minzhang and other leaders attended the meeting and spoke. The caring cause fully affirmed that the meeting should be included in the history of China's health development. The Ministry of Health decided to include it in the national medical and health work development plan. After the international seminar, hospice care institutions have sprung up in many provinces and cities across the country, and China's hospice care industry has begun to enter a period of comprehensive development.

In May 1993, the "Foundation Conference of the Hospice Care Professional Committee of the Chinese Mental Health Association and the Second National Hospice Career Symposium" was held in Yantai, Shandong. In May 1995, the "third national hospice academic seminar" was held in Guilin, Guangxi. The National Symposium on Death Education and Hospice was held in Kunming in March 1996. And after many years of preparations, a "Hospice Magazine" was launched to promote the further development of hospice. ^[3]

Hospice