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Something that is not talked about is the use of drugs(morphine) to end a patient's life when the body is virtually overwhelmed with cancer. How hard is that for the nurse to administer the fatal overdose? Is that all in a day's work? Does the nurse suffer stress doing this? It cannot be easy! It probably won't be answered in this forum but it is something to think about. I don't know the truth and I will probably never know.
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I will talk about it because honestly, I have no idea what you are talking about. Every patient I had, I never administered a "lethal" dose. All the patients that passed away were usually on the dose of pain medication they were on for weeks. And just so you know, not everybody gets morphine.
Sometimes it can be disheartening when people make blanket statements without researching the truth. My job was to make the patients comfortable. To make their last moments of their life bearable so they could spend it awake, alert, and comfortable with their loved ones instead of in the hospital. By their choice.
Many do not know the true purpose of hospice. They hear stories of rapid death. But the best hospice patients are the ones who realize they don't want to chase the small statistic of a cure. They would rather spend that time at home. Doing what they want with the people they love. It is rather peaceful. I have had hospice patients that were on my patient load for over seven months. I have had patients hold my hand and tell me how much they appreciate my presence. I have cried and hugged my patients families. And to this day, even though I haven't done hospice nursing in years, I still keep in touch with some of the families.
What else do you want to talk about?