Do hospice patients reveal the secrets to the universe?

This article is the sixth in a series of articles where I take each assumption from the original article and explore the concept in greater depth to include implications and possible interventions. In my last article, I wrote about the assumption thatfamily matters will get resolved.Here is our next assumption: The secrets to the universe will be revealed.I admit I went into hospice work with the expectation that I would have profound experiences at the bedside with dying patients. How could one not have this expectation when we see articles about famous last words, such as theNPR article about Steve Jobs saying, “Oh wow” just before he died?Indeed, I have captured some fascinating thoughts from some of my dying patients. One woman who was devotedly Christian told me, “All faiths go through the same door.” Another time I had a patient say, “Love has no distance.” She said that she knew her family couldn’t be present at the bedside, but she still felt love from them and for them. As it turned out, I used that phrase to comfort the audience in my speech a t our hospice memorial. These statements are so simple and yet so profound.I ’ve even taken to asking patients, “What are the secrets to the universe?” My first indication that I might be off base was a 99 year old woman who had no desire to reflect on her life. Over the course of a year I visited her monthly, but the conversation never got too deep. She didn ’t want to look at photo albums, did not ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: assumptions door expectations family intervention lizzy miles psychosocial secrets social work universe Source Type: blogs