I have always been attracted to hummingbirds and dragonflies. Someone once told me that if you see a hummingbird soon after someone has...

A few days ago I was at a facility seeing a patient. I got off the elevator heading toward the memory care unit and noticed a familiar...

The only real certainty about death is that we are all going to die. We are certain of that. But how and when we die is a question no one...

In one week I could sit with ten different people who are about to or will have lost someone they love. I am witness to the dying process...

By the time someone comes to us, they have lived their entire lives; we come in at the very end and only get a snapshot. We hear a...

I spend a lot of time talking about the beautiful side of death. Working in hospice has allowed me an opportunity to see death in a way...

When I applied to nursing school, it was with my full intention to become a hospice nurse; I never entertained anything else. I knew with...

Despite my experience working in the end-of-life field, sometimes I still need to be reminded that this is someone else’s experience and...

I have said this before… but people have a tendency not to ask me how my day was because they are afraid that I am going to tell them. In...

I went to dinner recently and I had to walk two blocks to get to the restaurant. It was really cold and pouring down rain and I forgot to...

When you work in hospice, you are constantly reminded of what it is like to lose someone you love. I am still trying to process the loss...

For the past few years, when appropriate, I have asked some of my patients what it feels like to die. My reason for this is because I...

After someone takes their last breath, I stay with the family and I provide comfort, support and active listening. I have a number of...

Being present is not something that just magically happens because someone suggests you do it, and in my opinion, it is not something we...

Very rarely do I actually take a lunch break when I am working, even less often do I go inside somewhere and sit down. But on one random...

When you or someone you love begins hospice care, it comes with a team of amazing humans who provide comfort and support at the end of...

If I could have my choice, I would have a death that was entirely comforted by compassionate and loving tactile stimuli, but the truth is...

Awhile back I received a call from the daughter of a patient who had passed away. She had spent the past two years providing the most...

I was having a conversation with a patient the other day about the things she wished she had done before she got sick. She talked about...

When you or someone you love receives a hospice order, it is with the understanding that there is only 6 months or less to live. That...