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End of Life Resources - Advanced Planning |
Looking for a Health Care Directive? The Conversation Project The Conversation Project has helpful videos and also audio versions of the Conversation Starter Guide and other guides. You can find these in the link below. Scroll to the bottom for the Audio Versions.
Understanding and discussing topics like advance directives, palliative care, caregiving and hospice care may feel overwhelming on top of dealing with a serious or life-limiting illness. Our guides and resources are here to help you through the journey you are on and to aid you in understanding the choices you have. Also available in Spanish. Communicating End-of-Life Care Wishes With Clinicians and Family Honoring Choices Minnesota 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. |
BK Books by Barbara Karnes, RN
Barbara Karnes is an Award Winning End of Life Educator, Award Winning Nurse, NHPCO Hospice Innovator Award Winner 2018 & 2015 International Humanitarian Woman of the Year
While at the bedside of hundreds of people during the dying process, Hospice Pioneer Barbara Karnes noticed that each death was following a near identical script. Each person was going through the stages of death in almost the same manner and most families came to her with similar questions. These realizations led Barbara to sit down and write Gone From My Sight, "The Little Blue Book" that changed the hospice industry.
Gone From My Sight is the original, and remains the most widely used, patient/family educational booklet on the signs of approaching death. It has been in print continuously since 1985 and has sold over 35 million copies world wide. With its publication and distribution, Barbara created one of the most important tools in the end of life movement today.
For more information and to access Barbara's resources (including her newest publications), follow this link: https://bkbooks.com/
End of life issues and the Role of the Faith Community Nurse
By Annette Toft Langdon, ELCA Deaconess and retired FCN
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.
Today, Five Wishes is more than a workbook that becomes a legal advance directive when completed. It is a comprehensive, person-centered advance care planning program that offers a proven, easy-to-use approach to having effective and compassionate conversations.
The hallmark of the Five Wishes program is its simplicity and clarity. Just as the Five Wishes advance directive document is widely known for being easy to follow and understand, the full program includes easy to use, scalable tools and resources.
Click HERE for more information and access to their trainings and resources.
Center for Infant & Child Loss is committed to assuring Maryland families facing the sudden unexpected loss of their infant or child have access to bereavement interventions, counseling, and information based on best practices and current research. CICL is dedicated to the education and training of persons working in health and child care, emergency response, law enforcement, and community services to promote awareness and knowledge of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), other sudden infant/child deaths, and practices to reduce the risk of these deaths.
Click HERE to go to their website.
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Every quarter, Five Wishes hosts a webinar for healthcare providers that provides a deeper dive into advance care planning topics. If you or someone you know is in clinical practice or in a related field, tell them about the Five Wishes Practice Community: https://www.fivewishes.org/fw-best-practice/ Literature reviews of research studies can be found at https://www.fivewishes.org/practice-community-research/ |
Nurse Honor Guard
Just this year I became acquainted with the Nurses Honor Guard. In the spring I read an article about an Honor Guard chapter starting in NE Ohio1. Then this summer a close nurse friend of mine invited me to attend a meeting of a newly formed Nurses Honor Guard Chapter in Cincinnati. I was hooked and became a member that evening! I mentioned the Nurses Honor Guard during a Region 5/6 monthly networking meeting, and most had not ever heard about it – hence the start of this article. Deloris Bills, another Region 6 Board member told us that she had been doing something very similar in her area for nearly 30 years! The funeral homes in her area call her to perform the Nightingale White Rose ceremony for a deceased nurse and she takes other nurses or nursing students along to assist. Deloris didn’t know about the more formal Nurses Honor Guard Chapters either. I’ve had the privilege of participating in three ceremonies so far and it is a powerful and touching experience, the family and friends of the deceased nurse are so grateful. Toward the end of the ceremony a call is made to any nurses in attendance to come forward and join us for the final roll call – what a powerful bonding moment!
What is a Nurses Honor Guard and what does it do? - “The Nurses Honor Guard pays tribute to nurses at the time of their death by performing the Nightingale Tribute at the funeral or memorial service. This service is similar to a military tribute and officially releases the nurse from their nursing duties. The ceremony is brief; it takes about 5 minutes and usually consists of reciting the Nightingale Tribute and laying of a white rose on the casket or next to the urn, symbolizing the nurse’s dedication to the profession. After the Nightingale Tribute is recited, a triangle or bell is rung after a roll call for the nurse. The nurse’s name is called three times and the triangle is rung after each call of the name. After the roll call the words are spoken that the nurse is officially released from their nursing duties. A lit Nightingale lamp is carried up at the beginning of the ceremony then extinguished and presented to the family with personal condolences made.”2
Is there a Nurses Honor Guard Chapter near me? There are many chapters in many states. The quickest way to find out is to “google” Nurses Honor Guard with your state name and see what pops up – i.e. Nurses Honor Guard – Ohio. Doing a Facebook search is another way to locate Honor Guard chapters
If there isn’t a chapter near me, how can I start one?
“Many Nurses Honor Guard members dress in the traditional white uniform complete with cap and cape. It is not difficult or expensive to start a Nurses Honor Guard. The caps and lamps are available online and the capes are hand made with a simple pattern. Once you take the idea to nurses in your area, you form a volunteer list that you can call on. The larger the group the better, as not everyone would be available each time your services are needed. Retired nurses are also a valuable resource. Once you have a few meetings and get your caps and capes, you can make appointments with local funeral directors and let them know to offer this service to the family. It is helpful to provide them with a flyer to give to the family. Each nurse is responsible to purchase their own white uniform and shoes.”2
If anyone would like assistance starting a Nurses Honor Guard, contact Julie Murray at jmury581@gmail.com.
I even found an academic poster presentation about forming a Nurses Honor Guard. 3
What is done during the ceremony?
Videos of different ceremonies can be viewed by searching Nurses Honor Guard on YouTube. Usually the following words are spoken:
Nursing is a calling, a lifestyle, a way of living. Nurses here today honor Nurse’s Name and his/her life as a nurse.
Nurse’s Name is not remembered by his/her years as a nurse, but by the difference he/she made during those years by stepping into people’s lives…. by special moments:
She Was There
When a calming, quiet presence was all that was needed,
She was there.
In the excitement and miracle of birth or in the mystery and loss of life,
She was there.
When a silent glance could uplift a patient, family member or friend,
She was there.
At those times when the unexplainable needed to be explained,
She was there.
When the situation demanded a swift foot and sharp mind,
She was there.
When a gentle touch, a firm push, or an encouraging word was needed,
She was there.
In choosing the best one from a family’s “Thank You” box of chocolates,
She was there.
To witness humanity—its beauty, in good times and bad, without judgment,
She was there.
To embrace the woes of the world, willingly, and offer hope,
She was there
And now, that it is time to be at the Greater One’s side,
She is there.
©2004 Duane Jaeger, RN, MSN
Nurse’s Name, we honor you this day and give you a white rose to symbolize our honor and appreciation for being our colleague.
Nurse’s Name (ring triangle) Nurse’s Name (ring triangle) Nurse’s Name (ring triangle) We officially release you of your nursing duties. Then the lamp is extinguished and given to a family member with quiet condolences.
Deborah Frusciano, another LFCNA Board member recently shared this item from a Barbara Karnes blog about offering the ceremony for the dying nurse instead of waiting until after the death.
“I was told a patient on hospice, who was a nurse, requested the ceremony be done for her in her bedroom before she died. How I love that! Why wait until we are dead to be applauded for the good work we have done. How can we smile and even shed a tear for the show of appreciation when we are dead, too late? “4
References:
- 1. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/nursing/publications/notable-nursing-spring-2021.pdf?la=en
- 2. https://www.opeiunursescouncil.org/NursesHonorGuard.aspx brochure
- 3. https://www.annanurse.org/download/reference/meetings/symposium/posters18/tobrocke.pdf
- 4. https://bkbooks.com/blogs/something-to-think-about/have-you-heard-of-nurse-honor-guard-honor-presentations-at-funerals-or-memorial-services
Logo from - https://www.fcnursehonorguard
Submitted by Norah Bertschy, RN, MSN
LFCNA Region 6 Board Member
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