Palliative Care At Home

Dying at Home: An Increasingly Important Trend

There ia s trend that is seen as more patients who are dying of cancer preferred dying at home with loved ones, but the families of those patients makes it hard on most palliative care givers because families would like them to do house chores instead of being the caregiver as outlined in their job description.

It is also imperative that Doctors, Hospitals, and  Caregivers work in conjunction with each other in order that the dying patient be made comfortable as they begin the progress through the last stage in their life. If this trend continues with the rise of terminal patients dying at home , more palliative caregivers would be needed, and less hospital beds would be available in the future.

 If doctors fail to provide care for their patients, especially home visits, then a rise in hospital beds would have to be increased.The lack of doctors refusing to be team players in palliative care would mean dying patients would have less access to medical treatment at home. Communication plays a significant role here, among doctors, patient, family members and palliative caregivers. Where I see the breakdown in communication is between the family, and palliative nurses where the roles are reversed. (palliative nurses are doing house work instead of the family)


Dying at home is an expectable right, since people are choosing to do so. If they are not enough palliative nurses to visit these patients the system would fail. The patient has choices to make together with the family, when the burden becomes too much to handle, and the decision yo move the dying patient to a hospital, hospice, or short term nursing home is the only choice they have.

Certain conditions must be reassess by the various health professionals that are involve with the dying patient, and family. Dying at home is very demanding, not only to the family, but the patient as well, the patient have to  be comfortable, and family members have to be relatively fit to perform the many duties, and chores that come along, with the job of caring for the dying at home.