Hospice Care: Books

Written by an experienced palliative care nurse, trainer, and complementary therapist, Being Mindful, Easing Suffering is an essential resource for professionals working with the seriously ill and the dying. Chris Johns describes how he has combined traditional medical, and more reflective models in his palliative practice, enabling him to work mindfully to alleviate physical and non-physical pain and suffering throughout the health-illness cycle.

This is a practical, accessible guide for nurses on the management and care of the dying and deceased patient. It outlines the practicalities and legal issues associated with death, the principles of caring for a patient who is dying, and the principles of dealing with death, both expected and unexpected. Care of the Dying & Deceased Patient explores all the practical issues surrounding death, including symptom control, resuscitation, organ donation; how to break bad news, the last offices, cultural issues, post mortems and documentation issues. It also explores both the legal and ethical issues involved- including withholding/withdrawing treatment, assisted euthanasia, patient's property, wills.

This e-book contains 7 previously published case studies on how music therapy has been used to help individuals at the end of life. Each case details the process by which therapist and client engage in music experiences that enable the client to address whatever emotional, spiritual, and interpersonal needs that arise at the end of life. The aim of the book is to provide practical information to students and professionals in music therapy and related fields and to inform all those affected by end-of-life transitions of the potential benefits of music therapy.

Case Studies in Palliative and End-of-Life Care uses a case-based approach to provide students and practitioners with an important learning tool to improve critical thinking skills and encourage discussion toward improving experiences for patients and their families. The book is organized into three sections covering subjects related to communication, symptom management, and family care.   Each case is presented in a consistent, logical format for ease of use, highlighting key evidence-based concepts including the case history, care setting, diagnosis and prognosis, assessment, treatment considerations, and family support.

This book brings together an international group of expert contributors from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to provide the knowledge, values and debate to help professionals work sensitively and respond effectively to the needs of different social groups.

Taking as its focus a highly emotive area of study, The Dying Process draws on the experiences of daycare and hospice patients to provide a forceful new analysis of the period of decline prior to death. Placing the bodily realities of dying very firmly centre stage and questioning the ideology central to the modern hospice movement of enabling patients to 'live until they die', Julia Lawton shows how our concept of a 'good death' is open to interpretation.

Today most people die gradually, from incremental illnesses, rather than from the heart attacks or fast-moving diseases that killed earlier generations. Given this new reality, the essays in Final Acts explore how we can make informed and caring end-of-life choices for ourselves and for those we love and what can happen without such planning. Essays consider death from natural causes, suicide, and aid-in-dying (assisted suicide).

Handbook of Palliative Care provides the what, how, and why of palliative care, helping providers follow best practices developed by specialists and supported by available research. It handily combines clinical practice and theoretical concepts in a succinct format, making the latest knowledge easy to find and apply.

Children with life-threatening and terminal illnesses--and their families--require a unique kind of care to meet a wide variety of needs. This book provides an authoritative source for the many people involved in caring for dying children. The book covers the entire range of issues related to the hospice environment: organizational structure, clinical issues, the complementary roles of medical professionals and volunteers, the particular circumstances of neonatal and AIDS-related deaths, pain and symptom control, and bereavement support.

This important new resource provides much-needed definitions and charts a common language for addressing spiritual care across the disciplines of medicine, nursing, social work, chaplaincy, psychology, and other groups. It presents models of spiritual care that are broad and inclusive, and provides tools for screening, assessment, care planning, and interventions. This book also advocates a team approach to spiritual care, and specifies the roles of each professional on the team.

The use of music therapy in children's hospices has burgeoned since its introduction by Jessie's Fund in the mid-90s. This moving and extremely helpful text brings together the experiences of eleven music therapists working with children who are in the final stages of life-limiting illness. The contributors adapt music therapy to hospice environments and explore key concerns for all practitioners, including how to empower ill children and their families, how to help bereaved siblings, and how the therapists themselves find support.

This practical introductory text provides an accessible guide to pain and how it affects patients and care giving. It considers: Different pain types including acute, chronic and palliative, assessing pain, treatment and pharmacology of pain control, challenging situations and dilemmas, communicating with patients in pain, and ethical and legal aspects of treating pain. The book also considers the experience of pain from the patients' perspective, to help healthcare students better understand the needs of patients who are in pain and how they can improve the care they give.