Death and Dying at Maple Crest

            Death and dying are things that are unavoidable when working at a nursing home. While death is a normal process of life, it is something that is very uncomfortable for people to talk about.  By treating death as a taboo topic, we don’t allow ourselves to make peace with the end of our lives.  This cheats individuals of the opportunity to make plans at the end of their life and to have an open dialogue with family members about end of life plans.

A term that is used by researchers is “good death”.  Now the term good death may be confusing because normally when thinking about death we only think about sadness. The term good death refers to when a person is not only kept free of pain but retains a high measure of control, autonomy and independence over his or her fate (Scarre, 2012). He or she retains the ultimate say over what treatments should be administered, and when those treatments should stop (Scarre, 2012). A dying person should be enabled, wherever possible, to make her final dispositions as she wishes, and attain a state of bodily and mental peace (Scarre, 2012). Maple Crest does a good job of giving residents a voice by allowing them to have a say so in their treatment plans (if they are cognitively fit) and in the daily activities that they participate in.

At St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York, they have instituted a program called “Seeds of Hope” (Kowal, 2013).  This program was instituted by a nurse named Susan Baum who through her own personal experience of losing a loved one and the culminating professional experiences of witnessing numerous natural and imminent deaths of critical care patients throughout her career (Susan Baum, 2014). As a part of this, program patients receive handmade blankets from the hospital volunteer group.  Family and friends honor their passing loved one by personally making handprints of them that are laid over poetry created by the staff.  All families receive Forget-Me-Not seeds that are packaged with an appropriate poem or prayer.  Along with the handprints, some families have asked for locks of hair and ventilator water (representing the last breath of their loved one).  Families stay and reminisce around their loved one while sharing a meal or conversation.  Every family receives a bereavement guide as well as personal mailings from staff-of words of encouragement and counsel-for up to one year after their loved ones passing (Susan Baum, 2014).

            Maple Crest also addresses the needs of the family members of their residents by providing them with them with “Care Notes”. Care Notes cover a variety of topics such as getting through the first week after the funeral, grieving the loss of your parent, sources of strength after the death of a spouse and using good memories to help heal grief among other topics. Through care notes, family members are able to prepare themselves for the death of their loved ones and how to deal with some of the emotions that come with death process.  Care notes also help family members realize that the feelings that they are feeling are normal after the loss of someone that they loved and cared deeply about.

          

 Death and dying are two topics that many people are uncomfortable talking about. Maple Crest however finds a way to address this topic with its residents and their family members. By providing the residents with a sense of self control in their lives they are allowing them to face death on their terms and thus create an environment where they can die in peace. In addition, by  providing their family members with the Care Notes, they are also helping them prepare for the death of their loved ones. By implementing some of the aspects of the Seeds of Hope program Maple Crest will able to take their death and dying care a step further and provide residents, family members and staff with appropriate care when dealing with death and dying.

 

References

Kowal, C. (2013) Helping your patient's family deal with death. Retrieved from http://www.nursetogether.com/helping-patients-family-deal-with-death

Scarre, G. (2012). Can there be a good death? Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, 18(5), 1082-1086. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2012.01922.x

Susan Baum (2014) Retrieved from http://daisyfoundation.org/daisy-award/daisy-nurses/2011/10/baum_susan