Hospice or Nursing Home?

How do you choose between a Hospice and a Nursing Home?

Are you pondering on whether to have your loved one referred to a hospice or a nursing home? These two terms are different from each other. But the two are meant to take care of the special needs and attention of the aged.

Moreover, unlike a nursing home that is a place or building, a hospice is not a place. A Hospice is a unique concept that’s designed to give patients and families support and comfort in cases where the illness has progressed to a point that making a patient comfortable is more important than treatments and cures.

Hospice Care

Hospice care, which is sometimes available in a nursing home but is most often provided in a separate facility, seeks to meet the person’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Hospice care facilities are not designed to prolong your loved one’s life, but neither are they designed to hasten his or her death.

Hospice care is often recommended by a physician to be given to a person who has just six months or less to live. The hospice care is given to the patient while he or she waits for the life beyond. Most hospice care takes place within the dying person’s home, whether it is his own home, the home of a family member or friend, or a nursing home.

At a hospice you can expect the volunteers and staff to not only have medical knowledge and provide medical care, but they also are very familiar with pain management techniques. This is different from having someone in the nursing home which is meant to take care of the aged and not necessarily someone with terminal illness.  Hospice care provides your loved one with care designed to enhance the quality of life. Instead of facing death in a "sterile" hospital bed, they can face death in a comfortable place that offers them dignity.

Staff in the hospice are a group of specially trained professionals (such as physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy), volunteers and family members. At a credible hospice facility you’ll find the staff taking care of the various symptoms of your loved one’s disease, but in particular they’ll focus on making your loved one comfortable and as pain-free as possible given the situation.

Whilst the staff at a nursing home may require little training and experience, the hospice staff are trained to consider not only your loved one’s medical needs, but the emotional, spiritual and social impact of the illness on you, your loved one, and other family and friends. The hospice facility is unique in that it can provide counseling services (and especially those pertaining to bereavement) to you and family members leading up to and after the loved one’s death.

 Nursing Home Care

The goal of the nursing home is to provide the needed care and comfort that aged people like your loved one need. Unlike a hospice, the nursing home does not necessarily deal with any ailments or sickness. Nursing Homes provide health care for elderly people, disabled people, people with Alzheimer’s disease, and others who need care around the clock.

The nursing home seeks to provide an enabling environment for the aged to enjoy life while still living and the attention is primarily focused on the individual in the home and not his family members. The nursing home seeks to help the aged appreciate the beauty of life despite his or her disability in doing some things. The staff are responsible for the person’s care for any medical problems unrelated to a terminal illness, which the hospice staff monitors.

A nursing home is required for someone who needs help 24 hours of the day. The nursing home seeks to make life worth living for their patients and also help their relatives concentrate on their jobs. Furthermore, there is the need to get adequate information on the nursing home or hospice you want to get for your loved one. Don’t be deceived into any particular home or hospice care. Make sure you see things for yourself and be adequately informed that the nursing home or hospice care is good for your loved one.

Choosing a Nursing Home

Nursing Home Questions

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