Friday, August 26, 2011

Oldest person marks 115th birthday in Georgia | The Associated Press | Music | Washington Examiner

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Happy Birthday Besse Cooper. We Georgia girls must be pretty tough, huh?

Posted via email from Hospice Volunteer Training Online

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

What's not to "Like" about a dream?

Help raise awareness of hospice services so those in need benefit earlier from great care that focuses on living.

Go to the Regency Hospice - Hiawassee Face Book page and click on "Like".

 

Easy, free, and helpful.  You can't beat that combination!

I think after you see the pictures of the dream come true for an 84 year old lady, you can't help but "Like" this page.

 

Go to this page and click "LIKE"

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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Do you really think I keep doing this because I want to be depressed? Give Me A Break!

Check out this website I found at janshospicevolunteers.wordpress.com

Great initiative by volunteer coordinator to enhance her volunteers' experiences. I love the quote,
“Do you really think I would visit dying people week after week for years so I could be depressed? Give me a break.”

Visit the blog at: http://janshospicevolunteers.wordpress.com/

Posted via email from Hospice Volunteer Training Online

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Hospice Insight from Volunteer Trainees

There have been times when the hospice volunteer training program took a back seat to my other responsibilities.  I sat down tonight to grade the final essays of some recent trainees and the most amazing thing happened.

The tiredness of the day took a turn.  I was almost in tears just trying to decide on what to cook for dinner and then I read the essays. 

"I wish I had know all this when my mother was dying"

"I will be a better communicator"

"I am a nurse but also a volunteer"

"I am a street preacher and want to do as much as I can to help others".

Service, Service, Service!

All around my are people doing everything they can to learn about hospice care, enthusiastically wanting to be of service....and I complain of being tired???

I developed the course with many intentions but the results have surprised me many times over.  I am continually blessed to read the heart felt statements and authenticity of intention that pours from those who take the course, digest the meaning and deliver a true desire to serve.

I hope I can grow up to take the right path just as they have done.  I am truly blessed.

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Posted via email from Hospice Volunteer Training Online

Monday, July 18, 2011

Survey says, "I want to die in the hospital"????

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While surveys point us to believe that most Americans wish to die at home it would be interesting to see how many caregivers wish for their loved one to die at home.

 

Another point for using hospice.  Social workers and case managers can help us as caregivers come to terms with the feelings that we can't deal with the death of a loved one at home.

 

A social worker once spent time with the wife of a patient who said she did not want her husband to die at home.  "Please make sure it happens in a hospital".

The husband said he wanted to be at home but knew his wife could not handle it. 

I wonder when we will be able to accept the death of a loved one at home?  I certainly don't want to experience it but if my husband wants to be at home when he passes, that is where he will be and I hope he can do the same for me.  Fortunately, we are not having to make that decision at this time of our lives so it is a perfect time to discuss it.

What's your thoughts about someone you love dying in their own home?

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Train to be a hospice volunteer.  Create your account here.

Posted via email from Hospice Volunteer Training Online

Saturday, July 16, 2011

When the Doctors Need Doctoring | Psychology Today

My first month as a medical intern, over 20 years ago, I learned many important things: how to distinguish heartburn from a heart attack, how to treat pneumonia and alcohol withdrawal, how to perform a spinal tap. What I did not learn was how to manage the stress of carrying an enormous workload and great responsibility while getting little sleep and eating a diet consisting of greasy food from the hospital cafeteria and candy bars from vending machines. Stress management was not taught because the stress of being a physician wasn't acknowledged. When we were tired, anxious, sad, or sick, we just kept working.

Like athletes and soldiers, we physicians pride ourselves on working through injury, pain, fatigue, and assorted conditions that might sideline other professionals. For decades, doctors have sacrificed their own health and comfort for the sake of their patients, an ideal that has been reinforced by various media, from the embittered and overworked physician in the 1950s film The Last Angry Man to the scores of hard-drinking medical professionals in Scrubs, House, and Grey's Anatomy.

It would not surprise most people to learn that doctors have higher rates of suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, and job burnout than most people. In the past we might have written off these problems as a natural consequence of doctors working long hours in a highly stressful job, an occupational hazard of people caring for sick people, regrettable but unavoidable.

Doctors could learn a lot about stress reduction from caregivers. Shouldn't someone develop a meditation just for health care providers?

Posted via email from Hospice Volunteer Training Online