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End of Life Resources - Advanced Planning |
Honoring Choices Minnesota The Conversation Project Communicating End-of-Life Care Wishes With Clinicians and Family Newly released is an audio version of the Conversation Starter Guide. This resource is designed to make the Guide more accessible to anyone who would prefer listening to the Guide being read to them. Please click on the link to The Conversation Project videos below and scroll to the bottom for this specific video. I’ll have it God's Way: Living Fully Now and into Your Forever by Hattie BryantLiving fully all the way to heaven might be harder than you think. Our complex modern healthcare system, fear of death, and lack of planning push us into a default end-of-life approach, instead of one that fits our values and desires. As a result, while 70–80% of people say they want to die peacefully and pain-free at home, surrounded by friends and family, fewer than 30% end up doing so. Christians are included in these statistics. It has become clear that modern medicine cannot give us all we need to live with meaning until the moment God calls us home. This study equips you with the biblical truth, healthcare facts, and practical steps you need to act on now, while you're still healthy, to prepare you to live fully all the way to heaven. In I'll Have It God's Way, you'll be guided gently through the necessary steps to take you from a vague idea of what you want to an applicable plan to make it happen. By the time you complete the study, you will have decided on a medical proxy, created an advance care directive, and even created a video to give to those in your circle of care. Your family, friends, clergy, and physicians will have the information they need to understand and honor your wishes in your final days. You'll have put all the tools in place to make your intentions a reality, one manageable step at a time. I'll Have It God's Way is designed for small groups to work through together, but it is equally helpful for individuals who wish to go through it themselves or with their families. Videos and discussion questions guide learning and discussion in six sessions, while additional reading and homework assignments provide more opportunities to internalize and personalize each step between sessions. Helpful worksheets, URLs for the online videos, and a template for an advance care directive are included. |
End of life issues and the Role of the Faith Community Nurse
By Annette Toft Langdon, Retired Faith Community Nurse
Imagine this scene: a person is in the hospital, actively dying with his wife at his side. The hospital nurses and staff come in and go out again and again as they tend to the physical, making the dying process as comfortable as possible. The FCN is present and simply stays there, quietly visiting with the family, hearing stories, offering comforting touch and prayer and perhaps sharing presence at the time of death.
There are many ways to support someone who is or may be near the end of life. Caring for the physical aspect is often more comfortable as nurses can share information, resources, tips on eating, sleeping, or physical comfort. Yet the care of the spirit is the central focus for Faith Community Nursing.
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Every quarter, Five Wishes hosts a webinar for healthcare providers that provides a deeper dive into advance care planning topics. The most recent webinar focused on how rural populations are at a heightened risk for poorer quality of care outcomes, and higher end-of-life care costs. A thoughtfully designed advance care planning program can help to address these care disparities and increase the likelihood of goal-concordant care for everyone, regardless of where they live and receive their care. If you or someone you know is in clinical practice or in a related field, tell them about the Five Wishes Practice Community, which is a part of our educational mission. |