Category: Tips and Tricks
Articles about tips and tricks for caregivers and nurses caring for the terminally ill.
Compassion Crossing, LLC
Guiding Life's Journey with Care
Compassion Crossing, LLC
Guiding Life's Journey with Care
Supporting ME/CFS Patients: A Guide to Accessing Palliative Care Despite Stigma
A comprehensive guide for ME/CFS patients and their caregivers on accessing palliative care services while dealing with illness stigma. Learn about patient rights, caregiver support, and strategies for advocating with healthcare providers to ensure proper care and symptom management.
When an IV Bag Becomes a Lifeline: Understanding Intravascular Dehydration in Older Adults
An elderly man kept landing in the hospital, dehydrated again and again, until a diagnosis finally explained why. Intravascular dehydration can hide in plain sight in older adults. Learn what sets it apart from ordinary dehydration, how IV fluids can restore comfort, and what caregivers should watch for near the end of life.
When Diabetes Insipidus Turns Into a Fight for Breath: A Caregiver’s Guide to CKD and CHF
When diabetes insipidus collides with failing kidneys and a struggling heart, caregiving gets complicated fast. This guide walks through real caregiving moments, explains why common heart drugs can be risky for someone with kidney disease, and outlines signs that mean it is time to call palliative care or hospice.
Aging in Place: What It Takes to Stay Home Safely as You Grow Older
Ninety-five percent of adults want to grow old in their own homes, yet most are not confident they will get to. This article breaks down four practical strategies for aging in place safely, plus a fifth: partnering with a health navigation specialist or death doula who knows your community.
An Open Letter to Discharge Planners: What Happens After the Folder Closes
This is an open letter to the discharge planners, charge nurses, and case managers who hand patients a folder of paperwork and hope it is enough. It shows what changes, for the patient and for you, when an independent patient advocate walks beside that family after they leave the hospital.
Understanding Adrenal Cancer Metastasis: Managing Adrenal Insufficiency and Crisis
Adrenal cancer metastasis can lead to adrenal insufficiency and crisis, posing significant challenges. This article explores the connection between metastasis and adrenal crises. It offers practical advice for nurses, caregivers, and family members on providing the best care and support for their loved ones.
Reading the Body’s Warning Signs: The Multi-System Signature Approach to Hospice Care
Hospice patients rarely die from one failing organ. They die when several systems break down together. This guide shows hospice clinicians how to spot that combined pattern, called a multi-system signature, to strengthen eligibility documentation, target comfort measures, and judge how much time a patient may have left.
When Skin Starts to Fail: Understanding SCALE at the End of Life
Skin is the body's largest organ, and it's often the first to show signs of dying. This guide walks caregivers through SCALE, the most common skin changes near the end of life, gentle ways to reduce the risk of injury without medication, and exactly when to call the medical team. Comfort matters more than cure here.
Hospice Care Is Growing Fast. Are Nurses and Families Ready for It?
Hospice care is reaching more families than ever, but the systems meant to support that growth have not kept pace. Nurses lack the training to document eligibility correctly. Family caregivers report financial strain, physical exhaustion, and feeling abandoned. Here is what agencies and families can do about it.
Your Numbers Are Not Your Story: What Really Matters in Heart and Lung Disease
When heart failure or lung disease enters your life, numbers like BNP, ejection fraction, and FEV1 can feel like a report card. But real health goes beyond lab results. Discover why your symptoms, daily choices, and early palliative care matter far more than chasing a better number.
Understanding Pruritus: A Caregiver’s Guide to Recognition, Prevention, and Relief
Pruritus, or persistent itching, can significantly impact your loved one's comfort and quality of life. This guide helps caregivers, nursing aides, and family members recognize pruritus through visual observation and reported symptoms, understand prevention strategies, and explore both nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatment options to provide compassionate, effective care.
Choosing the Right Tool: How the Beers Criteria, STOPPFrail, and STOPP/START Guide Safer Medication Decisions in Hospice
Medication decisions in hospice are some of the most ethically weighty choices a care team makes. This article compares the Beers Criteria, STOPPFrail, and STOPP/START criteria so hospice professionals can choose the right tool, deprescribe safely, and always honor the patient's voice and their family's authority.
Breathe In, Let Go: How Box Breathing Helps Caregivers Reclaim Calm
Caring for a loved one with a chronic or terminal illness is one of the hardest things a person can do. Your body and mind carry more than most people realize. Box breathing — a simple four-count breathing technique — can help you reset, reduce stress, and stay grounded, even on the hardest days.
When Eating Stops: Understanding Appetite and Thirst Loss at the End of Life
When a loved one stops eating or drinking, fear sets in fast. But the loss of appetite and thirst near the end of life is natural — the body's way of preparing. This article explains the science, the signs, and how to offer comfort without forcing food or fluids, with trusted resources to guide you.
Understanding and Managing Edema: A Practical Guide for Caregivers and Family Members
Edema is swelling caused by underlying medical conditions that require professional treatment. This comprehensive guide helps family caregivers, third-party support staff, and end-of-life doulas understand edema as a symptom, providing practical, non-medical comfort measures to support their loved ones while emphasizing the importance of medical consultation for proper diagnosis and treatment.
Seeing the Whole Person: Trauma-Informed Care in Palliative and Hospice Settings
Trauma doesn't stop at a diagnosis. In palliative and hospice care, unresolved trauma shapes how patients and families experience illness, loss, and death. This article explores SAMHSA's framework, the Iceberg Model, and real-world scenarios that show what trauma-informed care looks like — and why it changes everything.
They Keep Falling: What Every Family Needs to Investigate
When someone you love keeps falling, the cause is rarely obvious and almost never "just age." It could be an infection, a medication, a vision problem, or an early sign that the brain is changing. This article walks you through what dementia really is, what to rule out, and exactly how to advocate for answers.
When Convenience Becomes Complication: What Families Need to Know About the PureWick™ System in Hospice Care
The PureWick™ System appears to simplify urinary incontinence care for hospice patients, but experienced nurses warn of serious complications. From infections to severe skin breakdown, continuous use creates risks that families rarely anticipate. Learn what hospice providers wish every family knew before using this device.
When Caring Costs Everything: The Hidden Financial Toll of Caregiver Stress
Family caregivers across America face an invisible crisis. Chronic stress from caring for loved ones creates a vicious financial cycle—missed work, mounting medical bills, strained relationships, and declining health. With $14.1 trillion in annual costs nationwide, it's time to recognize this burden and connect families with help.
When Comfort Matters Most: A Compassionate Guide to Pain Management Ethics in End-of-Life Care
Managing pain at the end of life requires a compassionate, individualized approach. This article explores ethical considerations in pain management for elderly patients, emphasizing the importance of starting slow, monitoring frequently, and customizing care. Learn why hospice medications provide comfort without hastening death.
Breaking the Silence: Why Every Healthcare Worker and Patient Needs Better End-of-Life Conversations
Research shows that patients with life-limiting conditions face barriers to critical end-of-life conversations, while healthcare staff cite poor documentation, lack of training, and insufficient support. This article explores why training healthcare workers on serious illness conversations matters and how advance directives protect everyone.
The Art of Hospice Assessment: Looking Beyond Vital Signs
Learn why vital signs don't tell the full story in hospice care. Explore how skilled nurses use their senses, experience, and meaningful conversations to assess patient comfort and disease progression, providing more personalized end-of-life care.
When Blood Pressure Treatment Becomes Too Much: Understanding Orthostatic Hypotension in Older Adults
Blood pressure medications save lives, but too much of a good thing can be deadly for older adults. Learn how orthostatic hypotension from over medication causes falls, what warning signs to watch for, and why patients and caregivers must advocate for regular medication reviews. A hospice nurse shares a remarkable story.
When Insurance Guidelines Put Lives at Risk: The Truth About Brain-Altering Drugs in Dementia Care
Despite safety warnings, one in four Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are prescribed brain-altering medications linked to falls, confusion, and hospitalization. Over two-thirds lack documented clinical need. Learn why insurance guidelines override patient care, the truth about antidepressants, and how to advocate effectively.