Hospice care is a philosophy of caring that assists those nearing the end of life. It is a way of providing care designed to give dignity and provide a sense of personal fulfillment to the dying. The focus is on the patient and family, and the emphasis is on quality of life rather than quantity of life.
Hospice searches for
meaningful treatment of terminally ill patients and their families by uniting medicine with compassion and caring. In short, the goal of all hospice care is to relieve symptoms in order to attain comfort and improve a patient’s quality of life.
Palliative Care is both a method of administering “comfort” care and increasingly, an administered system of palliative care offered most prevalently by hospitals. As an adjunct or supplement to some of the more “traditional” care options, both hospice and palliative care protocols call for patients to receive a combined approach where medications, day-to-day care, equipment, bereavement counseling, and symptom treatment are administered through a single program.
Dr. Danielle Grandrimo dedicated herself to making sure patients and families were well cared for and comfortable during the difficult last phase of her patients’ lives. With her specialized knowledge of medical care, including pain management, her goal was to provide care that improved the quality of her patient’s last days by extending a hand of compassion.
Hospice work is a deeply rewarding field being able to offer patients the control of their care and give them a sense of peace in their decisions for treatment. Knowing that patients are nearly certain to die in your care may be a difficult part of hospice work, but Dr. Grandrimo’s desire has always been to help others, to be an advocate for her patients, and to ensure that they never felt deserted at any stage of their illness.
“When you know your patient was comforted by the fact that his loved ones were going to be supported even after he’s gone, it’s rewarding.”